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BV  3269 

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1909 

Crawford 

,  William 

Henry, 

1855- 

Thoburn 

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THOBURN  AND  INDIA 


Semicentennial  Sermon  and  Addresses 
Delivered  at  the  Thoburn  Jubilee, 
Celebrating  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of 
Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn' s  Sailing 
for  India.       :::::::: 


Edited  by 
WILLIAM    HENRY  CRAWFORD 

President  Allegheny  College 


New  York:  EATON    &    MAINS 
Cincinnati:  JENNINGS  &  GRAHAM 


MAR     1    2000 


Copyright,  1909    by 
EATON  &  MAINS, 


LETTER     APPOINTING     JAMES     M.     THOBURN 
A  MISSIONARY  TO  INDIA 

New  York,  Feb.  22,  1859. 
To   Rev.   James   M.    Thoburn,    Minister   of  the   M.   E. 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  and  member  of  the  Pittsburg 
Conference  of  said  Church. 
Dear  Brother: 

You  are  hereby  appointed  a  missionary  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  to  India. 

You  will  sail  for  that  country  as  soon  as  practicable. 
On  reaching  Calcutta  you  will  report  yourself  to 
Rev.  William  Butler,  Superintendent  of  said  Mission, 
and  commence  and  prosecute  your  study  of  the  lan- 
guage and  your  missionary  labors  under  his  direction. 
While  you  remain  in  the  Mission  you  will  conform 
to  the  directions  of  the  Board  at  New  York  and  the 
instructions  from  time  to  time  of  the  Bishop  having 
charge  of  that  Mission. 

Yours  fraternally, 

E.  S.  Janes, 
M.  Simpson. 


"There  has  never  been  a  man  like  unto  him  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  for  the  purpose  to  which 
he  devoted  his  life.  With  simplicity  mingled  with 
sagacity ;  with  straightforward  English,  and  yet  at  times 
under  inspiration  reaching  the  spirit  and  the  words  of 
the  ancient  prophets,  but  more  frequently  of  the  apostle 
John,  he  has  persuaded  us  when  he  could  not  convince, 
and  convinced  us  when  he  could  not  persuade." 

— James  M.  Buckley. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 9 

PART   I 
SEMICENTENNIAL   SERMON    AND    ADDRESSES 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Semicentennial    Sermon.      Bishop    James    M. 

Thoburn,  D.D 23 

II.  Transformed  Homes  in  India.     Miss  Lilavati 

Singh 48 

III.  A  Review  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  Fifty  Years  in 

India.    Rev.  Homer  C.  Stuntz,  D.D 59 

IV.  High  Ideals  for  High  Service.     Rev.  Stephen 

J.  Herben,  D.D 76 

PART  II 

ADDRESSES  ON  THE  RELATION  OF  THE 
COLLEGE  TO  MISSIONS 

A.  THE  RELATION  OF  THE  COLLEGE  TO  FOREIGN 
MISSIONS 

I.  The  College  and  the  College  Man  in  Foreign 
Missionary    Achievement.       Rev.    Thomas 

Nicholson,  D.D 93 

II.  The  Study  of  Missions  in  Our  Colleges.     Rev. 

Levi  Gilbert,  D.D 115 

III.  The  Widening  Field  of   Opportunity.      Rev. 

Adna  B.  Leonard,  D.D 125 

IV.  What  Can  be  Done  to   Increase   Interest  in 

Foreign  Missions  among  the  College  Students 
of  America?  Bishop  William  Fraser  Mc- 
Dowell, D.D.,  LL.D 133 

V.  Discussion 142 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

B.  THE  RELATION  OF  THE  COLLEGE  TO  HOME 
MISSIONS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Foreigner  in  Our  Midst.     Rev.   Robert 

Forbes,  D.D 151 

II.  The  City  to  be  Redeemed.     Rev.  Frederic  H. 

Wright,  D.D 160 

III.  The  Empire  of  the  West.     Rev.  Claudius  B. 

Spencer,  D.D 167 

IV.  The  Problem  of  the  Negro.     Rev.  Wilbur  P. 

Thirkield,  D.D 179 

V.  The     New    Call    to    Social     Service.       Rev. 

Herbert  Welch,  D.D. 191 

VI.  The  Training  of  the  Worker.     Rev.  Charles  J. 

Little,  D.D.,  LL.D 203 

VII.  Discussion 216 

PART    III 

ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FORMAL  TRIBUTE 
AND  JUBILEE  EXERCISES 

I.  Rev.  William  V.  Kelley,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  repre- 
senting the  Religious  Press 223 

II.  Rev.  C.  A.  R.  Janvier,  D.D.,  representing  the 

Missionary  Societies  of  America 232 

III.  Bishop  John  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  repre- 

senting the  Board  of  Bishops  and  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church 239 

IV.  Presentation    of    House.      Rev.    Horace    G. 

Dodds,  D.D 245 

Response.    Bishop  Thoburn 248 

V.  Messages  of  Greeting  and  Appreciation 250 

VI.  Responses  at  the  Dinner,  with  Closing  Message 

by  Bishop  Thoburn 264 

An  Added  Word 292 


INTRODUCTION 


In  presenting  to  the  reader  this  collection  of  ad- 
dresses and  papers  something  ought  to  be  said  of 
the  event  which  brought  together  so  many  eminent 
speakers.  SeFdom,  if  ever,  has  an  institution  of 
higher  learning  witnessed  such  an  inspiring  spec- 
tacle as  the  Thoburn  Jubilee,  which  was  held  at 
Allegheny  College  in  April  last  from  Sunday,  the 
eleventh,  to  Tuesday,  the  thirteenth,  celebrating  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn's 
sailing  for  India.  The  Jubilee  far  surpassed  the 
most  extravagant  expectations  of  those  who  planned 
it.  It  leaped  beyond  the  elaborate,  the  formal,  and 
the  stately  into  the  thrilling,  the  soul-inspiring,  and 
the  prophetic.  It  was  one  of  those  overwhelming 
events  which  captivate  audiences,  lead  to  sublime 
consecrations,  and  stir  dormant  energies  into  heroic 
action.  Those  present  will  forget  many  of  the 
things  they  saw  and  heard,  but  they  will  never  for- 
get what  they  felt.  The  presence  of  God  was  with 
us,  and  the  imperative  call  to  imperative  duty  was 
heard  by  many. 

There  are  some  events  which  cannot  be  described. 
Their  uniqueness  places  them  beyond  description. 
The  Thoburn  Jubilee  was  such  an  event.  The  day 
after  it  was  over  some  one  asked  the  dear  Bishop 
himself  what  he  thought  about  it.     "O,"  he  said, 

9 


io  INTRODUCTION 

"I  cannot  estimate  it  yet.  I  must  wait  until  it  is 
farther  away.  But  I  feel  sure  of  this,  that  at  least 
twenty  students  will  go  into  mission  fields  from 
Allegheny  College  because  of  this  Jubilee.  That 
makes  me  very  happy."  ■  Perhaps  the  most  striking 
thing  about  the  Jubilee  was  the  fact  that  it  was  so 
much  more  than  a  tribute  to  Bishop  Thoburn.  Of 
course,  it  was  that.  From  the  opening  service  on 
Sunday  morning  until  the  close  of  the  dinner  on 
Tuesday  night  all  eyes  were  directed  toward  Tho- 
burn, and  all  speakers  told  of  the  mighty  deeds  of 
the  "great  little  man."  But,  above  all,  the  Jubilee 
was  a  great  missionary  event,  inspiring,  illuminat- 
ing, suggestive,  and  helpful.  If  a  subtitle  to  Tho- 
burn Jubilee  should  be  written,  it  would  read  some- 
thing like  this :  "A  Celebration  Showing  the  Su- 
preme Importance  of  the  Christian  College  as  a 
Training  School  for  Missionary  Leadership."  The 
evangelization  of  the  world  and  the  relation  of  the 
college  to  this  stupendous  task  was  the  burden  of 
all  the  addresses  and  the  petition  of  every  prayer, 
as  well  as  the  theme  of  conversation  in  social 
gatherings  and  in  private  talk  during  the  three 
days  of  the  Jubilee.  Thoburn  and  India  were  given 
large  place.  They  were  the  text,  but  the  theme  was 
ever  the  same — the  evangelization  of  this  world. 

In  looking  forward  to  the  Jubilee  perhaps  nothing 
aroused  so  much  expectation  as  the  semicentennial 
sermon  by  the  Bishop.  It  seemed  a  glorious  coin- 
cidence that  the  time  fixed  for  the  sermon  was  not 
only  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Bishop's  ordina- 


INTRODUCTION  n 

tion  for  missionary  service,  but  Easter  morning, 
the  morning  of  the  resurrection.  The  First  Meth- 
odist Church  was  beautifully  decorated  for  the  occa- 
sion. Palms  and  lilies  and  roses  sang  of  victory, 
peace,  and  God's  great  love  for  his  children.  The 
large  chorus  choir  filed  into  place,  while  the  organ 
joyously  pealed  forth  Gounod's  "Triumphale." 
The  audience  crowded  the  great  auditorium,  amen 
corners,  gallery",  and  all,  and  then  gathered  in  the 
open  space  near  the  altar.  And  such  an  audience! 
Many  had  come  from  long  distances.  Some  were 
present  who  had  been  coworkers  with  Bishop  Tho- 
burn  in  India,  and  with  him  had  seen  the  ravages 
of  the  famine  and  the  fever — had  seen,  too,  mighty 
victories  of  conversion  and  spiritual  quickening. 
As  the  Bishop  entered  the  pulpit  the  entire  audience 
rose  and  sang  with  the  choir,  "Praise  God,  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow."  It  was  a  touching  trib- 
ute, and  many  eyes  filled  up  before  the  last  word 
of  the  great  doxology.  And  no  wonder!  The 
memories  of  fifty  years  were  finding  expression  in 
praise.  The  opening  prayer  was  by  Bishop  Moore. 
Bishop  Thoburn's  sermon  followed.  The  text  was 
from  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  book  of  Acts,  the 
second  verse:  "Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for 
the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them."  The 
Bishop  has  often  preached  in  Meadville,  and  his 
sermons  are  always  heard  with  delight  and  profit. 
Never  before,  however,  has  he  faced  here  such  an 
expectant  audience  as  the  one  which  greeted  him  on 
Jubilee  Sunday  morning.     The  audience  was  not 


12  INTRODUCTION 

disappointed.  The  speaker  was  in  good  voice,  ap- 
parently in  the  best  of  health,  and  the  power  of  God 
was  manifestly  upon  him  as  he  spoke  with  simple, 
earnest,  direct,  and  straightforward  speech  the 
message  he  had  prepared.  As  he  told  of  his  con- 
version and  of  his  call  to  the  mission  field,  and  then 
of  the  providential  way  he  had  been  led  during  his 
missionary  experiences,  it  seemed  that  an  Isaiah 
was  speaking  the  message  of  God  to  the  people  of 
God.  As  the  Bishop  described  how  the  work  of 
conversion  is  only  one  phase  of  the  great  mission- 
ary enterprise,  many  saw  the  wide  field  of  oppor- 
tunity in  India  as  they  had  never  seen  it  before. 
The  closing  part  of  the  sermon  was  a  beautiful 
illustration  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  glorious  optimism 
and  his  contagiously  triumphant  faith  that  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  are  to  become  the  kingdom  of 
our  Christ.  After  the  benediction  was  pronounced 
it  seemed  that  everyone  in  the  congregation  wanted 
to  take  the  preacher  by  the  hand. 

The  services  in  the  afternoon  and  evening  were 
characterized  by  the  spirit  of  the  morning.  In 
describing  the  high  ideals  required  for  high  serv- 
ice Dr.  Herben  made  a  strong  appeal  to  the  young 
men  and  women  of  the  college.  "Bishop  Thoburn's 
long  life  of  lofty  service,"  said  he,  "is  an  excellent 
text  for  my  message.  He  js  an  incarnation  of  the 
highest  ideal  committed  to  the  highest  service.  As 
such  he  is  to  us  to-day,  and  has  been  for  many 
years,  a  source  of  unfailing  inspiration."  One  of 
the  most  delightfully  fascinating  features  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  13 

whole  Jubilee  was  the  presence  and  address  of  Miss 
Lilavati  Singh.  Alas  that  we  must  so  soon  mourn 
her  death!  As  a  product  of  our  mission  schools 
and  as  professor  in  Isabella  Thoburn  College,  Luck- 
now,  she  was  a  striking  illustration  of  the  gospel's 
mighty  and  transforming  power  in  the  dark  lands 
of  heathendom.  Her  Oriental  dress  and  her  deli- 
riously mellifluous  Oriental  voice  added  peculiar 
charm  to  her  beautiful  description  of  the  great 
changes  which  have  come  about  in  the  homes  and 
among  the  women  of  India  through  the  Christian 
missionary.  In  opening  her  address  she  told  of  a 
custom  in  her  country  that  when  tribute  was  to  be 
paid  to  some  great  personage,  a  garland  of  gold 
brocade  was  brought  by  those  who  could  afford 
it  to  be  placed  upon  the  neck  of  the  one  to  be  hon- 
ored ;  but,  if  the  poor  came,  they  might  bring  simply 
a  wreath  of  jasmine.  "I  am  almost  afraid,"  she 
said,  "to  offer  my  tribute  to  Bishop  Thoburn ;  please 
look  upon  it  as  a  garland  of  jasmine  and  nothing 
more." 

The  audience  at  night  was  much  like  that  of  the 
morning.  It  crowded  the  church  to  overflowing. 
Dr.  Stuntz,  who  was  appointed  to  present  a  review, 
of  Bishop  Thoburn's  fifty  years  in  India,  never 
spoke  with  greater  freedom  and  power.  In  a  man- 
ner never  to  be  forgotten  he  brought  to  us  the  story 
of  the  phenomenal  achievements  of  the  man  whom 
he  described  as  "a  missionary  prophet  and  a 
dreamer  of  great  dreams  of  spiritual  victories."  The 
mass  meeting  on  Monday  evening  was  an  event  of 


i4  INTRODUCTION 

high  order.  Bishop  Moore  made  a  stirring  appeal 
for  China,  and  Bishop  Hamilton  pleaded  in  his  own 
unique  way  that  America  be  fully  and  completely 
won  for  Jesus  Christ. 

The  missionary  conferences  on  Monday  and 
Tuesday  were  profitable  beyond  the  highest  anticipa- 
tions. Bishop  Moore,  Bishop  Berry,  and  Bishop 
Smith  presided.  All  college  work  was  suspended 
for  the  two  days,  and  there  was  nothing  to  do 
but  to  enjoy  the  feast  of  good  things  brought 
to  us  by  missionaries  and  church  leaders.  Invi- 
tations had  been  extended  to  a  number  of  con- 
tiguous colleges  to  send  delegates.  Five  of  them 
responded  favorably.  Thiel  College,  a  Lutheran 
institution  at  Greenville,  nearly  forty  miles  away, 
sent  thirty  delegates.  One  of  the  most  impressive 
sights  of  the  Jubilee  was  witnessed  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  first  conference  on  Monday  morning, 
when  the  venerable  Dr.  Jonathan  Hamnett,  who 
was  Bishop  Thoburn's  instructor  in  Allegheny 
College  more  than  fifty  years  ago,  walked  into 
the  room.  On  reaching  the  platform  he  was 
presented  to  Bishop  Moore,  who  said:  "I  think  it 
is  a  law  laid  down  by  the  greatest  heroes  not  to 
receive  honor  one's  self  until  honor  has  been  paid 
to  one's  teacher."  He  then  asked  all  to  stand  in 
honor  of  Dr.  Hamnett.  The  request  met  with  a 
hearty  response.  A  fine  keynote  was  sounded  in 
Dr.  Nicholson's  paper  on  "The  College  and  the 
College  Man  in  Foreign  Missionary  Achievement." 
There  is  not  room  in  this  brief  introduction  to  even 


INTRODUCTION  15 

refer  to  all  the  great  papers,  addresses,  and  fine 
discussions.  The  reader  is  referred  to  the  pages 
which  follow.  The  messages  of  the  two  mission- 
ary secretaries,  Dr.  Leonard  and  Dr.  Forbes,  added 
much  to  the  success  and  value  of  the  conferences. 
An  incident  which  approached  the  dramatic  oc- 
curred at  the  close  of  Bishop  McDowell's  address 
when  he  turned  to  Bishop  Thoburn  with  a  tribute 
which  was  simply  thrilling. 

The  Jubilee  reached  its  climax  in  the  Formal 
Tribute  Exercises  of  Tuesday  afternoon.  First  was 
the  academic  procession.  The  seniors  of  the  college 
were  out  in  caps  and  gowns,  forming  two  lines  on 
either  side  of  the  walk  leading  from  Bentley  Hall  to 
the  Chapel.  After  them  the  juniors,  then  sopho- 
mores and  freshmen.  Under  the  direction  of  the 
marshal  of  the  day,  the  speakers  and  all  who  were 
to  participate  in  the  program  formed  a  line  in  front 
of  Bentley,  and  immediately  behind  them  were 
official  visitors,  trustees  of  the  college,  and  members 
of  the  faculty  in  their  gay-colored  doctor's  gowns. 
The  procession  was  led  by  Bishop  Thoburn  and  the 
president  of  the  college.  It  was  no  formal  tribute 
which  the  students  paid  to  the  distinguished  son 
of  their  college  as  they  stood  in  two  long  lines 
reaching  from  old  Bentley  up  past  the  Library,  then 
down  beyond  the  class  of  '03  gateway  to  the  very 
door  of  Ford  Memorial  Chapel.  No  one  could 
look  into  their  faces  without  seeing  how  proud  they 
were  of  their  Bishop,  and  how  they  honored  him 
and  loved  him.     They  had  built  no  archway  for 


16  INTRODUCTION 

the  triumph  they  were  giving  him.  He  needed 
none.  There  is  an  unseen  archway  under  which 
Bishop  Thoburn  walks  whenever  he  comes  upon 
the  campus  of  his  Alma  Mater — the  archway  of 
our  love  and  admiration.  On  reaching  the  chapel 
the  audience  joined  in  singing  "Faith  of  our 
Fathers,"  after  which  Bishop  Smith  offered  prayer. 
Telegrams  and  congratulatory  letters  were  then 
read.  Nearly  fifty  colleges  and  universities  sent 
greetings.  Many  missionary  societies  did  the  same. 
Greetings  were  read  from  Bishops,  from  preachers' 
meetings,  from  theological  schools,  from  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  from 
Mr.  Bryce,  the  English  Ambassador,  and  from 
President  Taft. 

After  the  reading  of  congratulatory  messages 
there  were  three  addresses.  Bishop  Hartzell,  who 
was  to  have  spoken,  was  detained  on  account  of 
temporary  illness.  Dr.  William  V.  Kelley  spoke 
first.  He  reaches  sublime  heights  in  public  address, 
but  in  the  judgment  of  several  who  have  heard  him 
frequently  he  never  surpassed  the  superb  effort  of 
the  afternoon  of  the  closing  day  of  the  Jubilee  when 
he  described  Bishop  Thoburn  as  enthusiast,  field 
marshal,  plunger,  and  typical  Christian  product. 
Dr.  C.  A.  R.  Janvier,  representing  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  speaking  for  the 
missionary  societies  of  America,  captured  his  hear- 
ers by  graphic  descriptions  of  the  marvelous  work 
he  had  seen  accomplished  in  India  by  Bishop  Tho- 
burn and  his  associates.    Bishop  Hamilton's  address 


INTRODUCTION  17 

reached  a  unique  climax  in  a  striking  reference  to 
the  house  which  was  to  be  presented  to  the  Bishop. 
A  break  in  the  program  occurred  by  the  suggestion 
that  the  students  desired  to  have  a  part.  The  pres- 
ident of  the  senior  class  came  forward  with  fifty 
beautiful  roses,  one  rose  for  each  of  the  fifty  years  of 
great  service.  Then  followed  an  exceedingly  ap- 
propriate and  happy  address  by  Dr.  H.  G.  Dodds, 
superintendent  of  Meadville  District,  after  which, 
on  behalf  of  a  hundred  friends,  he  presented  to 
Bishop  Thoburn  a  warranty  deed  for  a  house  on 
Locust  Street,  together  with  a  draft  for  a  thousand 
dollars.  At  this  point  the  audience  rose  to  their  feet, 
and  with  shouts,  song,  and  waving  handkerchiefs 
expressed  gratitude  and  rejoicing.  The  Bishop  re- 
sponded briefly.  He  evidently  wanted  to  say  more, 
but  could  not.  It  was  not  until  the  close  of  the 
dinner  given  in  his  honor  in  Cochran  Hall  in  the 
evening  that  he  spoke  what  was  in  his  heart.  This 
address  will  long  be  remembered  by  everyone  who 
heard  it. 

In  trying  to  think  over  all  that  happened  in  the 
three  days,  I  find  myself  settling  down  to  the 
thought  that  the  most  impressive  feature  of  the 
Jubilee  was  Bishop  Thoburn  himself — quiet,  mod- 
est, unassuming,  apparently  altogether  undisturbed 
by  what  was  going  on ;  hearing  and  seeing  every- 
thing, responding  to  every  recognition  with  the 
simple  dignity  of  a  saint;  eyes  filled  up  at  times, 
voice  choking,  but  always  giving  the  impression 
that  the  strong  Son  of  God  was  by  his  side.    When 


i8  INTRODUCTION 

Dr.  Kelley  turned  to  him  at  the  close  of  his  master- 
ful and  prophetic  address,  strong  men  cried  like 
children ;  the  whole  audience  was  moved  and  melted 
at  the  recognition  given,  and  quietly  joined  with 
the  dear  Bishop  in  giving  God  all  the  glory. 

When  the  Jubilee  was  over,  distinguished  guests 
went  to  their  homes,  and  the  routine  of  college  was 
on  again,  the  regular  work  demanding  and  receiving 
full  attention ;  lecture  rooms,  laboratories,  and  gym- 
nasiums taking  on  their  wonted  activities.  To  all 
outward  appearances  we  were  the  same  as  before. 
But  I  am  sure  I  voice  the  sentiment  of  students  and 
faculty  alike  when  I  say  that  there  abides  with  all 
of  us  the  conviction  that  in  the  Thoburn  Jubilee  we 
saw  "a  vision  of  God."  Our  prayer  is  that  the 
vision  may  continue  to  abide,  and  that  as  the  result 
of  the  Jubilee  scores  of  young  men  and  women  from 
this  college  and  from  other  colleges  may  be  led  to 
give  their  lives  in  glad  service  to  Him  who  fifty 
years  ago  called  James  M.  Thoburn  from  college 
halls  to  missionary  service. 

Many  who  were,  present  at  the  Jubilee  expressed 
the  wish  that  the  addresses  might  be  put  in  perma- 
nent form.  The  same  wish  has  been  expressed  by 
a  goodly  number  who  were  not  present.  It  is  in 
response,  therefore,  to  the  earnest  and  urgent  wish 
of  a  very  large  number  of  people  that  this  volume 
has  been  prepared.  In  arranging  the  material 
placed  at  my  disposal  I  have  tried  to  group  the 
addresses  and  papers  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  the 
reader  something  of  the  same  impression  that  we 


INTRODUCTION  19 

received  who  were  present  during  the  whole  of  the 
Jubilee.  I  fully  realize  that  some  of  the  best  things 
cannot  be  put  into  the  book.  The  flashing  eye,  the 
illuminated  face,  the  quality  and  modulation  of 
the  speaker's  voice,  the  suffused  emotion  of  the 
great  audience,  the  sudden  and  spontaneous  out- 
burst of  appreciative  recognition — these  cannot  be 
put  into  cold  type.  They  forever  elude  both  type 
and  pen.  The  reader's  imagination  must  supply 
them  as  best  it  can. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  with  so  many  speak- 
ers, over  thirty  in  all,  coming  as  they  did  from  long 
distances  and  from  many  directions,  there  was  so 
little  variation  from  the  printed  program.  Dr. 
Nicholson  and  Dr.  Gilbert  failed  to  arrive.  Both 
were  in  the  clutch  of  La  Grippe.  Dr.  Nicholson's 
paper  was  brought  to  us  and  read  by  Dr.  Stuntz. 
Dr.  Gilbert's  paper  came  later.  All  other  speakers 
whose  names  had  been  announced  with  one  excep- 
tion were  present  and  brought  to  us  their  carefully 
prepared  messages. 

.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  the  limits  of  this 
volume  make  it  impossible  to  present  to  the  reader 
all  that  was  said  during  the  three  wonderful  days 
of  the  Jubilee.  No  pains  have  been  spared,  how- 
ever, to  include  as  nearly  as  possible  all  that  related 
directly  to  Bishop  Thoburn  and  India  and  to  the 
great  problem  of  world-wide  evangelism.  The 
volume  is  sent  forth  with  the  earnest  hope  that  it 
may  carry  the  message  of  the  Jubilee  to  tens  of 
thousands  in  America  and  in  India,  many  of  whom, 


20  INTRODUCTION 

though  not  present,  were  deeply  interested,  some  of 
them  sending  words  of  greeting  and  substantial 
tokens  of  admiration  and  love  for  the  missionary 
hero  in  whose  honor  the  Jubilee  was  held. 

W.  H.  C. 
Allegheny  College,  Meadville,  Pa., 
June  i,  1909. 


PART  I 

SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  AND 
ADDRESSES 


31 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON 

"Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them." — Acts  13.  2. 

In  these  words  we  find  the  first  definite  mission- 
ary commission  ever  given  to  a  Christian  church, 
or  to  individual  missionaries.  The  event  was  in 
no  way  remarkable  in  itself,  and  probably  excited 
nothing  more  than  a  warm  personal  interest  in  a 
call  which  concerned  two  prominent  and  much- 
loved  young  men  of  the  community.  No  one  could 
foresee  that  the  church  at  Antioch  was  about  to  in- 
augurate a  movement  which  in  its  ultimate  results 
would  overthrow  ancient  paganism,  and  lead  to 
the  conversion  of  the  Roman  empire.  Two  de- 
spised zealots  of  a  hated  race  were  calmly  starting 
out  to  set  in  motion  an  agency  which  was  to  recast 
ancient  civilization,  overthrow  ancient  religious 
ideals,  brush  aside  ancient  philosophy,  and  prepare 
the  way  for  a  new  Europe,  and  ultimately  for  a 
new  world.  In  this  commission  we  find  nothing 
strange  or  startling  except  its  terms.  It  is  not 
probable  that  an  audible  voice  gave  a  command  to 
certain  good  people  assembled  in  a  prayer  meeting, 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  assume  that  at  any  time  or 
place  the  words  recorded  in  this  verse  were  actually 
heard  by  an  assembly  of  Christians  at  Antioch.    It 

23 


24  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

is  much  more  probable — indeed,  I  have  long  re- 
garded it  as  practically  certain — that  in  the  earliest 
days  of  Christianity,  among  the  apostles  and  their 
first  converts,  divine  messages  were  given  and  re- 
ceived very  much  in  the  same  way  as  similar  events 
occur  at  the  present  day.  When  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  to  take  up  and  make  universal  the  presence  and 
power  of  the  risen  Christ,  it  was  with  the  express 
assurance  that  he  should  abide  forever,  and  he  is 
still  in  the  midst  of  every  group  of  disciples,  and 
still  commissions  and  sends  forth  those  chosen  for 
special  work.  It  is  most  unfortunate  that  a  con- 
trary notion  has  gained  general  currency  in  modern 
times,  and  that  it  is  too  readily  conceded  that  the 
days  of  power  of  which  we  read  in  our  New  Testa- 
ments have  passed  away,  not  to  return  till  the  end 
of  the  present  dispensation. 

The  thought  has  already  occurred  to  some,  per- 
haps to  many,  who  listen  to  these  words,  that  the 
age  of  miracles  is  past,  that  signs  and  wonders  have 
ceased,  and  that  in  our  less  favored  days  we  are 
compelled  to  work  by  slower  methods,  and  be  con- 
tent with  a  lower  order  of  gifts  and  a  less  effective 
equipment,  but  I  do  not  for  one  moment  concede 
anything  of  the  kind.  On  the  other  hand,  modern 
missionaries  enjoy  advantages  of  which  Barnabas 
and  Paul  knew  nothing.  Throughout  nine  tenths 
of  the  globe  they  have  not  only  liberty  but  protec- 
tion. In  almost  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  earth 
they  enjoy  the  prestige  which  the  Christian  name 
gives  them.    As  for  miraculous  power,  we  mistake 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  25 

when  we  assume  that  Barnabas  and  Paul  depended 
wholly,  or  even  largely,  upon  this  special  source  of 
strength.  In  the  story  of  their  first  tour  we  find 
that  they  had  achieved  great  success  before  any 
mention  of  miracles  occurs,  and  when  miracles  do 
occur  it  does  not  appear  that  they  were  introduced 
as  proofs  of  divine  authority,  but  rather  as  illustra- 
tions of  divine  power.  The  two  missionaries  had 
gone  through  the  whole  island  of  Cyprus,  and  every- 
where had  met  with  success  before  the  first  mention 
of  anything  like  a  miracle  occurs.  In  an  age  when 
miracles  were  expected,  and  pretended  miracles 
abounded,  when  all  classes  were  looking  for  strange 
manifestations,  a  place  was  found  for  the  miracu- 
lous such  as  in  our  day  of  spiritualistic  impostures 
does  not  exist.  The  age  of  miracles  of  a  material 
kind  is  past  for  the  simple  reason  that  better  meth- 
ods are  now  available  than  were  possible  two  thou- 
sand years  ago. 

But  the  special  subject  to  which  this  text  calls 
our  attention  is  the  remarkable  summons  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  the  church  at  Antioch  to  set  apart 
two  well-known  men  to  go  out  as  pioneer  mission- 
aries into  foreign  regions.  The  call  was  very 
specific,  the  men  were  named  and  the  summons 
somewhat  peremptory.  The  work  to  be  done  was 
not  stated,  nor  the  places  to  be  visited,  but  divine 
direction  was  assured,  and  a  history  which  we  ac- 
cept as  inspired  has  recorded  the  story  of  their 
success.  Do  we  have  any  incidents  in  our  modern 
life   which    remind    us   of   this   wonderful   story? 


26  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Does  God  assign  tasks  to  his  servants  now  as  he 
did  in  ancient  days?  Does  the  Master  who  once 
walked  with  his  disciples  among  the  hills  of  Galilee 
ever  call  one  and  another,  or  perhaps  a  group,  and 
assign  them  tasks  in  a  land  chosen  for  them,  per- 
haps in  the  distant  ends  of  the  earth?  Beyond  all 
possible  doubt  he  certainly  does,  and  in  doing  so 
he  usually  proceeds  in  the  way  chosen  at  the  begin- 
ning; that  is,  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  a  double  call, 
first  to  the  disciples  to  go,  and  next  to  the  Church 
to  send.  This  order  may  not  be  followed  in  every 
case,  but  it  has  entered  into  the  life  story  of  many 
a  messenger  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  special  occasion 
which  has  called  you  together  this  morning  must 
plead  my  excuse  if  I  venture  to  tell  you  the  sim- 
ple story  of  my  own  call  to  the  foreign  field.  It 
was  a  double  call,  first  from  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  then  from  the  Church  in  which  I  held  my 
membership. 

First  there  was  a  call  in  a  general  sense,  to 
foreign  missionary  work.  It  was  specific,  and  al- 
though unwelcome,  and  at  times  disturbing,  it  could 
not  be  permanently  shaken  off.  Five  years  later 
the  call  was  renewed,  but  more  definitely.  I  had 
graduated  here  in  your  own  college,  had  responded 
to  what  I  regarded  as  a  call  from  God  to  devote 
my  life  to  preaching,  and  was  enthusiastic  in  my 
work,  when,  silently  and  gently  as  the  dew  on  the 
flowers,  the  Holy  Spirit  began  to  revive  a  convic- 
tion which  I  had  felt  for  three  years  or  more,  that 
my  life  must  be  devoted  to  work  in  the  foreign  field, 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  27 

I  did  not  in  the  slightest  measure  welcome  this 
conviction,  and  would  have  dismissed  it  as  a 
fancy  but  for  the  assurance  which  came  to  me  that 
it  was  from  God.  In  time,  however,  this  conviction 
took  a  definite  shape,  and  India  began  to  rise  as  if 
on  a  distant  horizon  as  the  land  to  which  God  was 
summoning  me,  and  which  was  to  be  the  land  of 
my  future  sojourn.  But  I  did  not  make  haste  to 
decide  a  question  of  such  vital  concern  to  myself, 
of  such  interest  to  my  friends,  and  of  such  practical 
importance  to  the  society  which  must  send  me 
abroad.  I  decided  to  seek  the  advice  of  my  presid- 
ing elder,  the  official  through  whom  the  Church 
would  communicate  with  me.  I  met  him  in  the 
early  morning  in  a  little  village  in  eastern  Ohio. 
He  had  just  arrived  from  a  night  train,  and  in  those 
days  before  sleeping  cars  had  come  into  use  he  had 
met  Bishop  Janes  on  the  train.  The  Bishop  was 
on  his  way  to  Chicago  looking  for  missionaries 
for  India !  The  elder  nominated  me,  and  almost  as 
soon  as  we  met  abruptly  asked  me  if  I  would  go! 
Without  hesitation  he  said  that  he  inclined  to  the 
opinion  that  I  ought  to  go.  I  slipped  upstairs  to  the 
little  room  in  which  I  had  slept,  and  knelt  by  my 
cot  to  pray,  and  there  God  met  me.  No  language 
can  describe  what  it  meant  that  morning  to  realize 
that  God  had  met  me  in  that  room.  It  only  re- 
mained to  consult  my  widowed  mother,  but  here 
again  I  found  that  God  had  been  before  me.  She 
had  again  and  again  been  made  conscious  that  a 
sore  trial  was  at  hand,  in  some  way  connected  with 


28  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

her  youngest  son,  and,  though  sorely  tried,  she 
quietly  told  me  that  she  could  not  refuse  to  let 
me  go.  And  thus  it  came  about  that  wherever  I 
turned  God  gave  me  a  token  of  his  purpose  to  send 
me  as  his  messenger  to  a  people  of  whom  I  knew 
little  or  nothing,  and  who  seemed  to  be  living  in 
the  very  ends  of  the  earth.  If  my  brief  day  of  ac- 
tivity in  the  mission  field  does  nothing  more  than 
recall  to  the  Church  a  vivid  realization  of  the  im- 
mediate and  personal  leadership,  through  the  agency 
of  the  Spirit,  of  Him  who  once  led  his  disciples  in 
Galilee,  it  will  abundantly  repay  me  for  all  I  have 
done  or  tried  to  do.  I  doubt  very  much  if  Barnabas 
and  Paul  were  any  more  confident  of  a  divine  call 
when  they  set  out  from  Antioch  than  I  was  when 
I  left  my  circuit  in  Ohio  for  a  new  field  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  globe. 

But  the  divine  call  is  only  an  incident  in  a  long 
and  active  life.  The  living  Christ  is  known,  and 
loved,  and  served  through  a  lifetime  of  service, 
and  the  discipleship  of  Galilee  was  no  more  real 
than  that  which  is  realized  by  vast  multitudes  of 
obedient  successors  of  the  same  disciples  in  our  own 
day.  He  who  called  me  in  Ohio  in  1859  has  been 
with  me  on  sea  and  shore,  on  mountain  and  plain, 
in  the  country  hamlet  and  crowded  city,  in  the  palace 
of  the  rich  and  the  mud  hut  of  the  poor,  in  the 
lonely  forest  and  in  the  midst  of  uncounted  multi- 
tudes who  crowd  the  city  streets.  Always,  and  in 
terms  of  his  unchanging  promise,  he  is  true  to  his 
assurance    given    when    withdrawing    his    visible 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  29 

presence    from    his    followers,    that    his    personal 
presence  should  be  with  them  evermore. 

I  have  thus  far  spoken  of  the  modern  call  to  mis- 
sionary service,  and  without  hesitation  have  based 
it  upon  a  personal  summons  to  service  from  Him 
who  enlisted  the  fishermen  by  the  Galilean  lake, 
and  the  customhouse  officer  at  his  post  of  duty. 
But  what  about  actual  service  in  the  modern  mis- 
sionary field  ?  Barnabas  and  Paul  were  called  very 
definitely  to  put  themselves  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  story  of  their  service  is 
before  us.  How  is  it  in  our  own  more  recent  times  ? 
If  the  call  is  the  same  as  in  olden  times,  how  is  it 
with  the  service?  To  what  extent  does  the  risen 
Christ  direct  and  help  the  missionary  after  he 
reaches  his  .distant  field  ?  Is  there  any  real  differ- 
ence between  this  help  in  China  and  in  Pennsyl- 
vania? "Is  not  the  promise  a  broad  and  impartial 
assurance  given  to  all  disciples,  in  all  lands,  and  ac- 
cording to  individual  needs?"  Certainly,  given  to 
all  on  equal  terms,  but  according  to  individual 
needs.  But  I  found  myself  in  a  land  of  spiritual 
darkness,  the  only  Christian  among  a  thousand,  or 
ten  thousand,  or  a  hundred  thousand  fellow  beings. 
I  found  my  situation  very  different  from  what  it 
had  been  in  earlier  years  when  I  worshiped  here 
in  a  Meadville  church.  And  when  I  remembered 
that  I  was  there  in  India  as  a  messenger  of  God, 
under  orders,  it  is  true,  from  the  Church,  but  still 
obliged  to  form  my  own  plans,  to  pursue  paths  of 
my  own  choosing,  and  to  put  my  trust  in  my  own 


30  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

resources,  it  is  not  strange  that  I  looked  to  God  for 
special  direction,  and  that  from  time  to  time  I 
received  intimations  of  the  divine  will,  sometimes 
given  by  providential  tokens,  and  sometimes,  though 
less  frequently,  by  direct  intimations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

Having  been  sent  to  India  by  the  Missionary 
Society  of  our  Church,  it  naturally  followed  that 
I  was  expected  to  work  under  certain  limitations 
which  the  society  should  establish.  A  certain  limit 
of  territory  was  specified  within  which  we  were  to 
work.  I  approved  this  plan  and  saw  no  objection 
to  it.  I  feared  the  responsibility  which  an  exten- 
sion of  our  field  would  bring  to  us.  In  the  territory 
within  which  we  had  set  up  our  banners  there  lived 
about  fifteen  million  souls,  and  surely  we  could  not 
wish  for  a  larger  or  finer  field  of  labor.  I  often 
thanked  God  that  the  lines  had  fallen  to  me  in  such 
pleasant  places,  and  that  he  had  given  me  so  goodly 
a  heritage.  I  was  receiving  a  fair  support  from  the 
Missionary  Society,  and  while  doing  so  I  recognized 
the  reasonableness  and  fairness  of  the  rule  that  the 
society  should  select  my  field  of  labor.  The  man- 
agers of  the  society  at  that  time  did  not  wish  an 
extension  of  the  field,  and  were  somewhat  nervous 
lest  our  financial  claims  upon  them  might  be  in- 
creased. Under  these  circumstances  I  began  to  be 
troubled  by  a  conviction  that  I  ought  to  relinquish 
the  support  which  I  received  from  the  Board  and 
trust  God  alone  for  my  support.  This  was  a  strange 
idea,  and  as  I  think  it  over  now  I  can  see  clearly 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  31 

that  I  did  not  fully  understand  myself.  I  thought 
I  might  in  this  way  set  a  good  example  to  our  native 
preachers,  or  I  might,  perhaps,  impress  the  Church 
at  home ;  but  the  real  power  which  moved  me  was  a 
direct  conviction  from  the  Holy  Spirit  that  I  must 
do  this  particular  thing,  and  when  in  my  heart  I 
decided  to  do  it,  immediately  God  seemed  to  open  a 
window  in  heaven  and  pour  out  upon  my  heart  and 
soul  such  a  wonderful  flood  of  love  and  joy  and 
peace  as  I  had  probably  never  realized  before. 

Now,  what  did  this  mean?  At  first  I  did  not 
understand  it,  but  its  real  meaning  soon  became 
evident.  The  step  I  had  taken  released  me  from 
my  obligation  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
and  set  me  free  to  enter  any  door  in  any  part  of 
India  to  which  God  by  his  providence  and  Spirit 
should  call  me. 

A  striking  call  came  in  due  time,  but  not  until  I 
had  tested  the  genuineness  of  this  preliminary  sum- 
mons to  a  special  duty.  When  I  gave  up  my  salary 
I  expected  to  become  very  poor,  but  to  my  extreme 
surprise  I  immediately  began  to  receive  money  from 
many  sources,  and  in  sums  which  far  exceeded  my 
personal  wants.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life  I 
found  myself  able  to  give  freely  to  the  poor,  and 
to  help  materially  in  sustaining  our  missionary 
work.  The  work  prospered,  the  outlook  was  bright, 
and  I  looked  with  eager  hope  for  a  great  work  of 
salvation  among  the  teeming  millions,  who  seemed 
to  surround  us  like  the  restless  waves  of  a  great 
sea  of  humanity. 


32  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

But  God  had  other  plans  for  me,  and  these  soon 
began  to  appear  upon  my  horizon  in  a  way  to  chal- 
lenge both  my  courage  and  my  faith.  Bishop 
Taylor  was  then  an  evangelist,  and  had  for  some 
time  been  preaching  in  Calcutta,  and  had  organized 
a  little  church,  but  now  wished  to  go  to  other  parts 
of  our  great  Indian  empire.  Bishop  Harris  mean- 
time arrived  from  America,  and  after  due  inspection 
of  the  situation  asked  me  to  leave  North  India,  go 
down  to  Calcutta,  and  take  charge  of  the  work 
which  had  been  commenced  there.  This  request 
did  not  startle  me,  for  I  had  been  expecting  such 
a  call  from  the  authorities  of  the  Church.  Both 
mind  and  heart  had  been  prepared  for  it.  I  now 
saw  why  it  was  that  God  had  released  me  from  my 
obligation  in  North  India  and  prepared  me  for  this 
emergency,  by  moving  me  to  relinquish  my  salary 
as  a  missionary,  and  leaving  me  free  to  go  to  any 
part  of  India,  or,  for  that  matter,  to  any  part  of  the 
world.  I  entered  Calcutta  as  a  stranger,  but  my 
way  seemed  prepared  before  me.  The  whole  city 
seemed  to  open  its  doors  to  me.  In  churches  and 
chapels,  in  theaters  and  halls,  on  board  ships  and 
in  private  dwellings,  in  streets  and  public  squares, 
everywhere  I  found  open  doors  and  open  hearts. 
For  ten  years  Calcutta  became  my  rallying  point, 
but  in  the  meantime  God  gave  me  wider  views, 
and  led  me  on  from  one  point  to  another,  but  never 
permitting  me  to  lose  sight  of  my  great  commission 
as  a  missionary. 

From   Calcutta   I  went  down  to   Rangoon,   in 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  33 

Burma,  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Cal- 
cutta. I  went  without  money  to  pay  my  return 
passage,  and  remained  there  fourteen  days.  I 
preached  twice  daily,  and  spent  most  of  my  time  in 
visiting  among  the  people.  This  visiting  was  really 
one  long  course  of  preaching  and  teaching,  but 
probably  did  more  good  than  my  public  preaching 
in  the  Baptist  chapel  which  had  been  kindly  placed 
at  my  service  during  my  stay.  I  could  only  remain 
in  Rangoon  two  short  weeks,  but  in  those  eventful 
weeks  God  gave  us  an  organized  church  with  fifty 
candidates  for  membership,  a  very  eligible  site  for 
a  church,  and  a  substantial  subscription  toward  its 
erection.  An  organized  Annual  Conference  is  the 
result  to-day  of  that  visit,  and  I  have  never  doubted 
that  God's  Holy  Spirit  prompted  and  directed  my 
going  down  to  that  important  city  at  the  time  and 
in  the  way  I  was  led. 

But  another  still  more  important  city  lay  far 
down  the  coast  beyond  Rangoon.  The  city  of  Sin- 
gapore, only  ninety  miles  north  of  the  equator,  was 
evidently  destined  to  become  one  of  the  world's 
great  emporiums,  and  probably  in  the  fullness  of 
time  one  of  the  largest  cities  in  the  tropical  world. 
I  knew  little  or  nothing  of  that  place,  but  had 
noticed  its  geographical  position,  and  naturally  in- 
ferred that  it  would  become  the  metropolis  of  that 
part  of  the  world.  I  cannot  recall  how  I  became 
interested  in  the  place,  or  how  I  was  led  to  consider 
the  question  of  planting  a  mission  there.  It 
was  two  thousand  miles  distant  from  my  home  in 


34  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Calcutta,  I  knew  no  one  living  there,  but  may  per- 
haps have  heard  officers  of  vessels  which  had 
stopped  there  speak  of  the  place  as  an  important 
port.  I  only  knew  that  something  like  a  conviction 
had  taken  a  firm  hold  of  my  mind  and  heart  that 
God  would  have  me  go  there  in  person  and  lay  the 
foundation  of  a  Christian  mission.  This  decision 
was  not  made  in  haste,  but  was  considered  prayer- 
fully for  two  years  or  more.  Strangely  enough, 
Bishop  Hurst,  on  his  way  to  India,  in -total  igno- 
rance of  our  plans,  became  peculiarly  impressed  that 
God  would  have  him  authorize  the  planting  of  a 
mission  at  Singapore.  We  in  the  field  meanwhile 
had  fixed  upon  William  F.  Oldham,  who,  having 
graduated  in  America,  was  then  on  his  way  to  take 
up  his  lifework  as  a  missionary  in  India,  as  God's 
chosen  servant  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  the  work. 
When  we  all  met  it  seemed  as  if  God  had  prepared 
each  one  for  his  part  of  the  enterprise.  We  had 
nothing  to  offer  Oldham — no  salary  and  no  home, 
no  congregation  and  no  membership,  no  school  and 
no  teacher,  and  no  preacher;  nothing,  in  short,  but 
an  assurance  that  God  had  called  him  to  that  post. 
He  did  not  for  a  single  moment  hesitate,  and  in 
accepting  the  work  which  fell  to  his  lot  he  entered 
upon  a  career  which  has  advanced  him  to  a  high 
position  among  the  notable  leaders  of  the  Church. 
The  record  of  our  first  expedition  to  Singapore 
has  become  a  story  of  thrilling  interest.  There 
were  four  of  us — myself  and  wife,  Dr.  Oldham,  and 
Miss  Battie,  the  chorister  of  our  church  in  Calcutta. 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  35 

We  had  to  make  a  voyage  of  two  thousand  miles 
and  had  only  money  enough  to  pay  our  passages 
one  way.  Our  steamer  touched  at  Rangoon,  where 
our  friends  received  us  with  enthusiasm,  and 
cheered  us  by  taking  a  public  collection  in  aid  of 
our  expedition.  We  reached  the  beautiful  city  of 
Singapore  in  the  early  morning  of  Saturday,  Feb- 
ruary 7,  1885,  and  were  met  on  the  dock  by  a  good 
Presbyterian  elder  who  affirmed  that  he  had  seen 
us,  as  a  party,  in  a  dream,  a  day  or  two  before  and 
had  recognized  us  when  he  saw  us  standing  on  the 
deck  of  the  steamer.  This  good  man  took  us  home 
and  entertained  us  free  of  charge  for  three  weeks. 
At  the  end  of  three  weeks  we  had  organized  a 
Methodist  church  of  which  Brother  Oldham  be- 
came pastor,  and  thus  was  laid  the  first  slight  foun- 
dation of  what  has  since  become  a  great  work  in 
Singapore,  and  a  vigorous  organization  known  as 
the  Malaysia  Annual  Conference. 

When  at  Singapore  we  made  inquiries  as  far  as 
possible  concerning  all  the  group  of  great  islands 
known  as  Malaysia,  and  were  strongly  impressed 
that  among  them  God  was  setting  before  us  a  wide 
and  effectual  door  for  missionary  enterprise.  This 
door  seemed  to  stand  wide  open  in  every  group 
except  one.  This  notable  exception  was  the  Phil- 
ippines. "You  can  go  anywhere  else,"  it  was  said 
to  us,  "but  if  you  land  at  Manila  you  will  be  in 
prison  within  twenty-four  hours."  At  once  the 
Philippines  became  our  care.  We  began  to  pray 
for  them,  to  make  inquiries  about  them,  and  to  dis- 


36  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

cuss  the  probabilities  of  a  Japanese  descent  upon 
the  islands,  in  the  hope  that  in  this  way  a  door 
would  be  opened  to  us.  The  one  thing  that  we 
did  not  anticipate  was  that  to  our  own  country- 
men would  be  committed  this  great  task,  but  so 
God  ordered  it,  and  thirteen  years  later  Admiral 
Dewey  swung  the  long-closed  gates  wide  open, 
to  be  closed  no  more  till  all  the  Philippines  shall 
be  redeemed  to  God.  Little  indeed  did  we  know 
or  even  dream,  when  we  set  out  on  that  long 
voyage  to  Singapore,  of  the  amazing  changes 
which  were  impending  in  that  remote  part  of 
the  globe.  As  I  write  these  words,  near  what  is 
probably  the  end  of  my  active  career,  I  am  im- 
pressed that  no  part  of  my  work  in  the  wide  mis- 
sion field  has  been  more  distinctly  marked  by  tokens 
of  God's  overshadowing  love  and  care  than  the 
planting  and  progress  of  our  great  work  in  Malaysia. 
With  the  opening  of  1885  it  seemed  best  that  I 
should  have  a  definite  appointment  which  would 
indicate  the  kind  of  work  which  I  was  expected  to 
do,  and  Bishop  Hurst  suggested  that  of  General 
Evangelist.  He  wished  me  to  go  to  such  places 
as  might  need  my  assistance,  but  for  the  season  soon 
to  open  I  was  to  go  to  Simla,  the  summer  capital 
of  India,  a  station  far  up  among  the  Himalayas.  A 
church  had  been  built  there  by  evangelical  laymen 
of  different  denominations,  and  preaching  was 
maintained  in  it  during  the  summer  months  by 
ministers  with  whom  special  arrangements  were 
made.    I  accepted  this  duty  for  five  months,  chiefly 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  37 

for  the  rest  it  would  give  me,  but  early  in  the  season 
I  met  with  a  severe  injury  by  the  falling  of  the 
horse  I  was  riding.  For  some  months  I  was  help- 
less, and  at  length  was  ordered  out  of  India,  with 
instructions  to  make  my  stay  a  long  one.  Like 
Jacob  of  old,  I  appeared  here  in  the  United  States 
halting  on  my  thigh  and  often  preaching  seated  in 
a  chair.  My  stay  was  prolonged,  I  became,  widely 
known,  and  in  1888  the  General  Conference  made 
me  Missionary  Bishop  for  India  and  Malaysia. 
The  same  General  Conference  added  Malaysia  to 
our  great  field  in  Southern  Asia,  and  thus  my  work 
for  the  rest  of  my  life  seemed  to  be  cut  out  for  me. 
I  have  never  professed  to  have  received  a  special 
call  to  this  position,  but  I  do  affirm  that  I  received 
a  special  blessing  in  it.  When  I  went  out  to  India 
commissioned  by  the  General  Conference  to  assume 
the  leadership  of  our  work  from  the  Himalayas 
to  the  sea,  and  from  the  Indus  to  the  farthest 
Malaysia  island,  God  put  his  seal  upon  the  appoint- 
ment by  blessing  me  whithersoever  I  turned.  The 
Annual  Conference  and  the  District  Conferences 
became  alike  scenes  of  revival  power.  For  some 
years  I  was  able  to  give  as  much  attention,  if  not 
more,  to  each  presiding  elder's  District  Conference 
as  to  an  Annual  Conference.  At  these  assemblies 
we  had  foreign  missionaries,  native  pastors  of 
various  grades,  teachers  and  other  workers.  We 
also  had  a  "Woman's  Conference"  meeting  sepa- 
rately, and  when  all  these  classes  met  in  their  devo- 
tional meetings  scenes  of  great  power  were  often 


38  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

witnessed.  The  whole  work  went  forward  prosper- 
ously, and  our  boundary  lines  were  constantly  mov- 
ing outward.  Meanwhile  converts  multiplied 
rapidly,  and  the  statistics  showed  such  advances 
that  many  even  of  our  friends  began  to  doubt  the 
accuracy  of  our  statistical  reports.  But  we  moved 
on,  putting  our  trust  in  God,  and  he  has  not  for- 
gotten his  promise  unto  this  day.  For  a  dozen 
years  I  was  familiar  with  revival  scenes  in  many 
parts  of  the  work,  and  received  abundant  tokens  to 
assure  me  that  God's  blessing  was  with  me,  and  but 
for  signs  of  failing  health  the  same  work  might 
have  continued  indefinitely. 

But  many  ask,  "What  has  been  accomplished  in 
these  fifty  years?  As  you  leave  the  field  what 
changes  do  you  notice?  Do  the  results  which 
appear  before  you  in  any  reasonable  measure  justify 
the  cost  of  the  work — that  is,  the  cost  in  labor,  in 
money,  and  in  life?"  Practical  people  in  our  prac- 
tical age  will  insist  on  asking  such  questions  as 
these,  and  it  is  well  that  they  should  do  so.  I  can 
only  answer  very  briefly. 

First,  I  have  seen  many  thousands  of  both  sexes 
renounce  their  ancestral  faiths  and  formally  adopt 
the  Christian  religion.  In  our  own  Church  we 
have,  including  children,  probably  a  quarter  of  a 
million  persons.  When  I  sailed  for  India  the  total 
membership  was  only  thirteen.  But  figures  do  not 
by  any  means  indicate  the  actual  results  of  our 
work.  In  our  first  field  there  was  not  one  woman 
who  could  read  or  write,   and  a  dense  prejudice 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  39 

existed  against  any  attempt  to  introduce  education 
among  women.  The  higher  classes  of  women  were 
not  only  shut  off  from  education,  but  also  from 
medical  relief.  Our  Woman's  Society  sent  out  to 
us  the  first  woman  doctor  ever  sent  to  a  heathen 
land,  Miss  Clara  A.  Swain,  M.D.,  who  is  still  living 
in  Central  New  York.  This  far-seeing  woman  not 
only  healed  the  sick,  but  bravely  assumed  the  task 
of  training  native  women  for  medical  practice. 
This  step  immediately  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  government,  and  led  to  the  opening  of  the  medi- 
cal colleges  to  women,  and  now  the  women  of  India 
in  large  numbers,  and  of  all  religions  and  all  castes, 
are  practicing  medicine.  This  .great  movement 
alone  is  worth  all  that  our  foreign  missions  have 
cost  the  Church.  Meanwhile  a  bold  attempt  was 
made  to  meet  the  prejudice  against  female  educa- 
tion among  the  higher  classes,  as  well  as  to  elevate 
the  character  of  the  native  Christian  women,  by 
founding  a  college  for  women.  This  has  been  suc- 
cessfully done  by  my  sister  Isabella,  and  in  competi- 
tive examinations  young  women  have  forever  put 
to  silence  the  cry  which  had  been  raised  among  both 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  that  women  have  not 
enough  mental  ability  to  entitle  them  to  education. 
In  a  word,  I  may  say  that  Christian  missions  have 
practically  secured  for  the  women  of  India  the 
assurance  of  their  social  and  personal  enfranchise- 
ment, although  its  full  realization  will  require  more 
time  and  more  labor.  But  time  will  not  permit  me 
to  tell  of  all  the  work  which  has  been  done.     The 


40  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

work  of  conversion  is  only  one  phase  of  the  great 
enterprise.  In  more  than  forty  languages  our  men 
and  women  are  faithfully  witnessing  for  Christ 
among  the  teeming  millions  of  Southern  Asia,  and 
in  doing  so  are  carrying  light  and  blessing  to  them 
in  a  thousand  forms.  To  provide  literature  for 
the  millions  among  whom  we  work,  we  have  estab- 
lished six  publishing  houses,  in  which  printing  is 
done  in  a  dozen  or  more  languages.  A  great  host 
of  preachers  of  different  grades  have  been  raised 
up,  and  the  organization  of  our  District  Confer- 
ences is  more  effective  than  of  those  in  any  other 
part  of  the  Methodist  world.  The  deaconess  work  of 
our  Church  was  first  officially  recognized  in  India, 
and  from  an  Annual  Conference  in  our  field  the 
memorial  was  sent  which  secured  the  formal  author- 
ization of  this  form  of  Christian  effort  in  Meth- 
odism. 

But  time  will  only  permit  me  to  mention  one 
more  fruit  of  missionary  work  which  we  may  ex- 
pect to  appear  in  the  fullness  of  time.  The  average 
wages  of  a  poor  family  in  most  parts  of  the  empire 
of  India  does  not  usually  exceed  thirty,  or  at  the 
most  forty,  dollars  a  year.  Many  millions  in  times 
of  even  ordinary  scarcity  are  familiar  with  the  ex- 
perience of  one  meal  a  day.  I  do  not  wonder  that 
I  am  often  asked  how  we  ever  expect  to  accomplish 
anything  under  such  conditions.  The  task  before 
us  seems  desperate  enough,  no  doubt,  but  if  we  can 
persuade  those  millions  to  accept  Jesus  Christ  as 
their  Lord  and  Master  they  will  most  assuredly  be 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  41 

lifted  up  out  of  their  dense  poverty  and  painful 
suffering,  and  introduced  to  a  life  of  comparative 
hope  and  happiness. 

If  you  ask  me  to  explain  how  this  is  brought 
about,  I  reply  frankly  that  I  cannot  do  it.  I  only 
know  that,  like  that  which  we  call  a  law  of  nature, 
some  influence,  some  tendency,  something,  favor- 
ably affects  a  community  which  fears  God  and  keeps 
his  commandments.  The  people  of  India  will  assur- 
edly become  Christian,  and  then  they  will  begin  to 
rise.  The  world  of  to-day  is  made  up  of  very  poor 
people.  The  rich  are  very  few,  the  well-to-do  only  a 
handful,  but  hundreds  of  millions  live  in  a  state 
which  we  would  call  starvation.  This  ought  not  so  to 
be.  Our  bountiful  earth  has  stores  of  supplies  of 
which  our  scientists  have  not  as  yet  discovered  any 
trace.  One  Burbank  astonishes  the  world,  but  God 
knows  and  can  summon  forth  a  thousand  more,  and 
men  of  this  kind  can  make  the  deserts  literally 
rejoice,  and  clothe  the  barren  mountains  with 
orchards  laden  with  fruit. 

There  are  two  passages  in  the  Bible  which  have 
long  attracted  my  attention :  one  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  and  the  other  in  the  last  chapter 
of  Revelation.  The  first  is  the  commission  given  to 
the  race  to  "subdue  the  earth."  The  other  is  the 
vision  of  the  tree  of  life,  the  leaves  of  which  are 
for  "the  healing  of  the  nations."  Man  has  hardly 
yet  commenced  the  task  of  subduing  the  earth,  and 
knows  but  little  of  its  almost  boundless  resources. 
As   for  the  healing   of  the   nations,   this   promise 


42  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

surely  is  more  than  a  poetical  expression.  Wars 
and  tumults  are  to  cease.  The  hungry  are  to  be 
fed  and  the  naked  clothed.  Sin  will  cease  to  be 
dominant,  and  oppression  and  tyranny  will  no 
longer  assume  a  leadership  to  which  they  have  no 
title.  Men  will  cease  to  defy  God,  and  bold,  bad 
men  will  no  longer  ride  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
earth.  The  Spirit  of  Christ  will  become  the  Spirit 
of  universal  humanity,  and 

Earth  by  angel  feet  be  trod, 
One  great  garden  of  her  God. 

I  cannot  close  these  remarks  without  referring  to 
the  extraordinary  contrast  between  the  missionary 
situation  to-day  and  that  which  was  presented  in 
our  Church  when  I  went,  out  to  India  fifty  years 
ago.  At  that  time  our  Church  had  only  two  foreign 
missions  in  all  the  heathen  world — one  in  China, 
and  a  little  mission  just  being  planted  in  India. 
We  were  expending  some  money  in  Africa,  it  is 
true,  but  that  was  among  the  negro  colonists  in 
Liberia,  all  of  whom  had  been  Christians  before 
they  left  America.  In  the  proper  sense  of  the  word, 
we  had  only  two  missions  among  the  heathen.  We 
had  not  entered  Mexico,  or  Japan,  or  any  island  of 
the  sea.  We  had  not  attempted  to  penetrate  into 
Africa.  At  that  date  the  whole  Roman  Catholic 
world  was  sealed  against  us.  Liberty  of  speech 
and  freedom  of  worship  were  denied  by  universal 
Roman  Catholic  law,  with  perhaps  the  notable  ex- 
ception of   the  noble  little  kingdom   of   Sardinia. 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  43 

Missionary  work  was  only  permitted  at  five  ports 
in  China,  and  our  Church  was  only  maintaining 
seven  missionaries  in  the  whole  heathen  world.  As 
for  success,  our  missionaries  in  China  had  baptized 
one  convert,  that  is,  one  convert  in  ten  years,  and 
I  have  never  forgotten  the  thrilling  report  of  that 
baptism  made  by  Dr.  Durbin  before  the  Pittsburg 
Conference  in  1858.  That  baptism  created  more 
enthusiasm  and  encouragement  than  the  conversion 
of  a  thousand  heathen  Chinamen  would  do  to-day. 

When  we  left  America  our  latest  report  from 
India  indicated  that  they  had  enrolled  thirteen  pro- 
bationers in  their  church  register,  and  this  was 
regarded  as  highly  encouraging.  But  what  is  the 
situation  now?  The  number  of  adult  converts 
baptized  last  year  in  all  our  wide  field  amounted 
to  fifteen  thousand  six  hundred  and  three!  And 
we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  this  number 
will  be  increased  from  year  to  year,  perhaps  for 
many  years  to  come.  An  amazing  change  is  pass- 
ing over  India,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  passing 
over  the  world.  The  doors  of  access  to  the  nations 
are  many,  and  they  are  open  wide.  When  I  first 
arrived  in  India  I  had  a  settled  opinion — perhaps 
I  ought  to  call  it  a  strong  prejudice — that  we  had 
a  field  marked  out  for  us  which  was  more  than 
large  enough  for  us  to  cultivate  as  our  own.  I  had 
accepted  the  idea  which  was  almost  universally 
adopted  at  that  time,  that  each  missionary  society 
should  have  a  special  field  of  its  own,  and  I  used 
to   affirm   that   our  little   section   of    territory   in 


44  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Northern  India  was  amply  sufficient  for  us  to  at- 
tempt to  care  for.  But  how  little  did  I  know !  God 
had  other  plans  for  us.  Dr.  Butler  said  to  me  when 
we  were  on  our  way  from  Calcutta  up  to  Lucknow, 
in  August,  1859:  "You  ought  to  be  thankful  that 
you  will  only  have  to  learn  one  language.  We 
have  only  one  language  spoken  in  our  compact 
little  field."  I  was  very  thankful  indeed,  and  ap- 
proved the  wise  foresight  which  had  given  me  a 
field  which  had  people  of  a  single  race  and  a  single 
language.  But  where  are  we  to-day?  I  have  lived 
to  see  our  work  expand,  and  in  God's  strange  prov- 
idence have  been  a  leading  agent  in  expanding  it, 
until  now  I  see  our  missionaries  preaching  in  forty- 
four  tongues,  and  winning  converts  at  the  rate  of 
probably  more  than  forty  every  day  in  the  year. 
These  figures  are  not  estimates,  but  are  based  on 
accurate  statistics.  I  am  persuaded  that  God  would 
have  his  people  know  how  splendid  the  opportunity 
is  which  he  is  setting  before  them.  The  time  is 
coming  when  my  words  will  be  quoted  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  weak  faith  and  limited  vision  of  the 
Christians  of  this  generation.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  poor,  depressed,  and  in  some  cases  op- 
pressed people  are  pondering  the  question  of  casting 
in  their  lot  with  the  only  people  who  have  ever 
taught  them  a  gospel  of  hope.  The  millions  are 
coming.  From  the  lowest  depths  of  ignorance  and 
darkness  we  are  to  lead  them  forth  into  a  life  of 
light  and  life  and  joy. 

A  new  missionary  spirit  seems  to  have  entered 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  45 

into  our  people  in  the  last  few  years.  It  is  a  spirit 
which  I  believe  has  been  breathed  upon  us  from  on 
high.  Our  missionaries  are  going  forth  into  all 
lands.  They  are  found  in  every  country  in 
Europe,  from  Saint  Petersburg  to  Rome  and  in 
Africa  from  the  Mediterranean  to  Cape  Town. 
They  are  not  only  found  at  all  the  great  centers 
of  India,  but  their  influence  is  felt  in  remote 
regions,  East,  West,  North,  and  South.  Castes 
and  tribes  are  moving  in  bodies  as  never  before. 
The  vast  empire  of  China  has  startled  the  world 
by  signs  of  change  which  appear  among  her 
people.  The  revolution  in  Turkey  is  one  of 
the  most  amazing  events  of  the  present  genera- 
tion. In  short,  wherever  we  turn  we  see  tokens 
that  God  is  abroad  in  the  earth,  and  those  who 
chance  to  be  living  on  earth  to-day  should  be  wise 
to  know  and  understand  their  day;  for  it  is  a  day 
of  visitation  in  very  deed. 

The  church  at  Antioch  was  a  notable  organiza- 
tion, and  yet  it  was  only  a  local  church,  organized 
on  the  simple  basis  which  prevailed  at  that  early 
period.  And  yet,  as  we  have  seen,  it  furnished  two 
of  the  great  religious  leaders  of  the  age,  and  made 
all  the  later  ages  its  debtor  by  its  prompt  and  un- 
selfish action  when  brought  face  to  face  with  a  great 
crisis  and  a  great  opportunity.  But  we  cannot 
doubt  that  the  Master  from  his  throne  is  looking 
down  upon  a  wider  world  than  that  of  the  first 
century,  and  is  watching  for  modern  messengers 
to  be  sent  out  upon  errands  as  sacred,  and,  I  had 


46  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

almost  said,  as  important,  as  the  magnificent  task 
which  was  confided  into  the  hands  of  Barnabas  and 
Paul.  The  Roman  empire,  it  is  estimated,  con- 
tained one  hundred  and  twenty  million  inhabitants, 
but  India  has  nearly  three  hundred  millions,  while 
the  equatorial  region  which  we  call  Malaysia  has 
fifty  million  more.  In  all  the  ages  past  since  the 
original  commission  was  given  to  the  first  disciples 
to  go  out  and  evangelize  the  nations,  no  such 
spectacle  has  ever  been  seen  as  that  which  con- 
fronts us  to-day.  And  can  we  believe  that  our 
glorified  Master  from  his  throne  in  glory  is  in- 
different to  this  spectacle?  Is  he  not  calling 
to  us  to-day,  as  he  did  to  his  disciples  at  Sychar, 
to  lift  up  our  eyes  and  see  the  coming  harvest? 
And  is  he  not  sending  forth  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  move  upon  the  hearts  of  some  disciples  who 
are  now  in  this  audience,  to  consider  the  supreme 
question  of  personal  duty  at  this  hour?  I  doubt 
not  there  is  a  noble  Barnabas  in  this  audience 
at  this  moment;  and  also  the  more  youthful 
Saul,  soon  to  have  his  name  changed  into  Paul, 
is,  I  trust,  represented  here.  And  the  same  Holy 
Spirit  is  here  to  awaken  a  new  interest,  to  kindle 
a  new  love,  to  implant  a  noble  ambition  to  excel 
in  living  for  the  lowly,  and  teach  the  secret 
of  rising  by  becoming  lowly.  Nor  is  the  call 
for  men  only.  The  little  company  of  women  who 
followed  Jesus  in  Galilee  and  Judea  have  be- 
come a  host  in  the  Christian  world,  but  in  our  great 
mission  fields  we  need  a  million  of  like  spirit.    Over 


SEMICENTENNIAL  SERMON  47 

there  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  we  have  more 
than  a  hundred  million  women  and  girls  groping 
in  dim  twilight,  and  waiting  for  messengers  of 
Christ  to  lead  them  out  into  bright  and  healing  sun- 
light. 

May  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  speak  to  the  Church 
here  to-day,  in  the  homes  of  our  people,  in  the 
sanctuaries  and  in  our  schools,  in  a  voice  which 
cannot  be  misunderstood,  and  may  this  peculiar 
convocation  which  has  brought  us  together  here 
result  in  a  noble  accession  to  the  working  force  in 
our  missionary  harvest  fields.  While  one  is  called 
home,  may  twenty  be  sent  out  to  reinforce  the  work- 
ers at  the  front.  A  meeting  such  as  we  are  holding 
here  to-day,  with  probably  one  hundred  or  more 
consecrated  young  people  of  both  sexes,  many  of 
whom  are  asking  what  God  would  have  them  do, 
ought  not  to  send  abroad  less  than  twenty  reapers 
into  God's  great  whitening  harvest  field. 


II 

TRANSFORMED  HOMES  IN  INDIA 

It  is  our  custom  in  India  on  festive  occasions  to 
put  a  garland  of  golden  brocade  around  the  neck 
of  the  guest  of  honor ;  and  when  one  is  too  poor  to 
bring  that,  he  brings  just  a  garland  of  jasmine  or 
some  other  common  flower.  After  hearing  Dr. 
Herben's  tribute  to  Bishop  Thoburn  I  am  afraid  to 
offer  mine,  but  please  look  upon  it  as  a  garland  of 
jasmine  and  nothing  more. 

About  nine  years  ago  it  was  my  privilege  to 
visit  Westminster  Abbey.  Accidentally  I  came 
upon  the  grave  of  David  Livingstone.  A  strange 
thrill  went  through  me,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  other  visitors  I  would  have  knelt  on  the  grave 
of  that  king  among  missionaries  to  pray  for  a  por- 
tion of  his  spirit. 

Last  October  I  began  my  work  in  this  country 
and  crossed  from  New  York  to  Ohio.  I  was  sit- 
ting alone  in  the  car,  and  as  the  train  crossed  the 
line  from  one  State  into  another  I  was  watching 
the  border  line  with  an  almost  holy  love  in  my  heart 
because  it  was  the  State  of  Ohio,  because  it  was  the 
home  of  the  Thoburns.  I  tell  you  this  because 
there  are  college  men  and  women  here,  and  it  is  to 
you  that  I  direct  my  message. 

There  were  many  Jewish  women  in  Palestine  at 
48 


MISS  LILAVATI   SINGH  AND  MISS  ISABELLA  THOBURN 

From  a  photograph  by   B.  T.  Badley,   taken  on  the  grounds  of  Isabella 

Thoburn  College,  Lucknow,  of  which  Miss  Thoburn  was  the 

founder  and  first  President  and  Miss  Singh  one 

of  the  best -known  graduates 


TRANSFORMED  HOMES  IN  INDIA  49 

the  time  of  our  Lord,  but  the  woman  who  broke 
the  alabaster  box  of  precious  ointment  is  the  one 
who  is  remembered  through  time  and  eternity. 
There  were  many  learned  rabbis  in  Gamaliel's 
school,  but  the  man  who  counted  all  things  loss  for 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  is  the  man  who  is 
known  from  pole  to  pole.  Some  of  you  think  it  is 
a  great  thing  to  be  a  President  of  this  country. 
Look  back  fifty  years  and  see  how  many  of  the 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  are  remembered 
to-day.  See  if  you  do  not  have  to  go  to  your 
history  to  find  even  the  names  of  these.  But  the 
name  of  a  Moody,  of  a  Cyrus  Hamlin,  of  a  Bishop 
Thoburn  are  known  throughout  the  world.  It  is 
true  to-day  as  it  has  always  been,  "Measure  thy 
life  by  loss  and  not  by  gain" ;  and  it  is  my  prayer 
that  because  of  my  visit  here  there  will  be  some 
who  will  offer  themselves  for  the  foreign  service. 

The  study  of  the  law  of  evolution  in  any  branch 
of  science  is  most  thrilling  in  its  interest:  for  in- 
stance, the  study  of  biology  from  amoeba  to  man, 
of  astronomy  from  the  nebula  to  the  solar  system, 
is  of  untold  value,  and  a  few  weeks  spent  in  such 
study  seem  to  change  one's  whole  life,  and  we  fall 
prone  on  our  faces  and  worship  and  adore  the 
Creator  with  awe  and  wonder  filling  our  hearts. 

But  the  history  of  missions  in  the  world  and  the 
story  of  the  evolution  of  the  Christian  Church  in 
India  is  even  more  interesting  and  wonderful  than 
the  history  of  life  or  of  the  solar  system,  for  it  is 
not  temporal,  but  eternal.     I  wish  we  had  time  to 


50  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

take  up  that  history,  but  you  must  do  that  for 
yourself. 

No  one  has  played  such  an  important  part  in 
this  work  as  Bishop  Thoburn  and  his  sister.  To- 
night you  are  to  hear  a  review  of  Bishop  Thoburn's 
fifty  years  in  India.  I  wish  to  direct  your  atten- 
tion in  the  few  minutes  given  me  to  the  part  he 
has  played  in  developing  woman's  work  for  woman. 

What  a  strange  beginning  it  had !  After  Bishop 
Thoburn  had  been  sent  out  to  India  and  had  sur- 
veyed the  field  intrusted  to  him,  he  with  others 
was  convinced  that  if  the  women  of  the  country 
were  to  be  reached  it  must  be  through  a  woman. 
This  thought  had  become  deeply  impressed  upon 
his  mind.  "One  day  while  itinerating  his  tent  was 
pitched  in  a  mango  orchard.  He  went  out  for  a 
little  walk  in  the  shade  of  the  trees.  It  so  happened 
that  a  vulture  had  built  her  nest  in  the  broken  top 
of  one  of  the  trees,  and  in  passing  near  the  place 
he  picked  up  a  quill  which  had  fallen  from  her  wing. 
Taking  his  penknife  he  began  to  amuse  himself  by 
making  a  writer's  pen,  and  having  succeeded  in 
this  he  lightly  enough  thought  that  he  would  go 
into  his  tent  and  see  if  he  could  write  with  the 
big  pen.  On  trial  the  pen  did  its  work  very  well. 
The  first  letter  written  with  this  strange  pen  was 
to  his  sister,  and  the  incident  was  destined  to  be- 
come historic.  This  letter  contained  a  brief  ac- 
count of  the  work  among  the  villages,  and 
described  the  difficult  situation  in  which  girls  were 
placed.     As  the  best  possible  way  to  meet  the  dif- 


TRANSFORMED  HOMES  IN  INDIA  51 

faulty  it  was  suggested  that  the  most  promising 
girls  should  be  gathered  into  a  well-equipped  board- 
ing school  at  some  central  point.  The  letter  closed 
with  the  question  written  almost  thoughtlessly, 
How  would  you  like  to  come  and  take  charge  of 
such  a  school  if  we  decide  to  make  the  attempt? 
By  the  first  steamer  which  could  bring  a  reply 
came  the  ready  and  swift  response  that  she  would 
come  just  as  soon  as  the  way  was  opened  for  her 
to  do  so."  The  offer  of  Miss  Thoburn  of  herself 
led,  as  we  all  know,  to  the  organization  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society. 

I  wish  now  to  paint  two  pictures  for  you :  The 
condition  of  Indian  women  as  Miss  Thoburn  found 
them  and  the  condition  as  it  is  now.  But,  before 
doing  that/  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  stop  to  say  that 
there  is  a  happy  mean  between  the  picture  as 
presented  in  the  books  written  by  Edwin  Arnold, 
Max  Miiller,  and  the  Swamis,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  those  who  paint  the  social  conditions  as 
utterly  black  and  the  character  of  the  Indian  people 
as  hard,  selfish,  cruel,  and  destitute  of  all  good  qual- 
ities. The  man  whom  we  come  to  honor  to-day, 
twenty  years  ago  in  one  of  his  addresses  in  Boston 
University  spoke  of  my  people  in  a  way  that  has 
been  a  source  of  inspiration  and  comfort  to  me. 
Listen  to  his  words :  "The  longer  I  have  lived 
among  the  people  of  India,  the  better  have  I  liked 
them,  and  I  can  say  to-day,  without  any  shadow 
of  affectation,  that  I  love  them  perhaps  better  than 
the  people  of  my  native  land.  They  have  many  noble 


52  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

traits  of  character.  They  have  elements  of  moral 
goodness  and  greatness  which,  when  sanctified  by 
grace,  will  give  them  a  noble  position  in  the  great 
family  of  our  common  Father."  You  cannot  men- 
tion the  name  of  Thoburn  in  India  to-day  without 
the  hearts  of  the  people  being  stirred  with  love.  It 
is  because  of  the  confidence  and  love  he  has  had 
in  us  that  his  work  has  been  such  a  success.  You 
may  die  for  a  people,  but  if  you  do  not  love  and 
trust  them  you  do  not  accomplish  any  lasting  good. 
Because  these  two  loved  us  and  had  faith  in  us  they 
have  developed  leaders. 

Not  only  because  of  the  degradation  of  my 
people,  but  because  of  their  wonderful  possibilities, 
I  plead  for  them.  A  few  years  ago  I  read  Lecky's 
History  of  European  Morals.  This  wonderful 
book  shows  us  what  Europe  was  before  the  dawn 
of  the  Christian  era.  The  position  of  woman  in 
Europe  has  changed  because  of  the  coming  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  exalted  woman.  The  position  of  the 
child  has  been  changed  because  Jesus  Christ  has 
discovered  the  value  of  the  child.  Infanticide  was 
practiced  not  only  in  India  but  in  other  lands.  In 
Rome  after  the  birth  of  a  baby,  when  the  father 
went  into  his  wife's  chamber,  if  he  lifted  it  into 
his  arms  the  child  was  spared.  If  he  did  not  it  was 
doomed  to  die.  And  even  after  it  was  accepted, 
for  the  first  seven  or  eight  years  of  its  life  the  slaves 
looked  after  it.    It  knew  very  little  of  its  parents. 

It  is  difficult  to  tell  you  of  the  social  evils  of 
India,  but  you  remember  the  definition  of  patriotism 


TRANSFORMED  HOMES  IN  INDIA  53 

as  given  by  George  Adam  Smith :  "Patriotism  is 
consciousness  of  one's  country's  sins  and  the  desire 
and  effort  to  remove  these."  I  will  now  show  you 
the  picture  of  India  as  Miss  Thoburn  found  it. 

When  Miss  Thoburn  reached  India  in  1869  sne 
was  brought  face  to  face  with  the  zenana  problem, 
the  child  marriage,  the  widow  problem,  the  firm 
conviction  in  the  minds  of  a  great  part  of  the  Indian 
people  that  a  woman  had  neither  a  soul  nor  a  mind. 
Even  to-day,  in  spite  of  the  great  changes  that  have 
taken  place,  these  things  exist,  so  that  according 
to  the  last  census  there  are  forty  million  women  in 
the  zenanas.  There  are  twenty-five  million  widows, 
one  hundred  thousand  under  ten  years  of  age,  five 
thousand  babies  of  a  year  old.  But  the  leaven  for 
overcoming  this  social  evil  is  already  at  work.  You 
too  have  social  evils,  but  yours  are  not  sanctioned 
by  your  religion ;  ours  are.  On  her  arrival  in  India, 
Miss  Thoburn  found  orphanages  and  village  board- 
ing schools  for  girls.  But  these  were  not  the 
schools  for  developing  leaders.  So  she  went  to 
work  and  started  a  college  for  the  girls  of  the 
better  classes,  girls  who  would  be  willing  to  pay 
for  the  education  they  received.  She  had  only  six 
girls  at  the  beginning,  but  the  number  has  grown 
so  that  now  there  are  two  hundred.  The  boarding 
schools  in  the  villages  are  all  right.  They  have 
grown  until  at  the  time  of  the  Jubilee  we  found 
that  there  were  twelve  hundred  and  ninety  schools 
in  Southern  Asia,  with  something  like  twenty  thou- 
sand girls  in  them. 


54  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

But  increase  in  numbers  is  not  the  chief  consid- 
eration. Quality,  drill,  leadership  are  very  impor- 
tant. In  order  to  build  up  Christian  character  our 
women  must  receive  the  highest  intellectual,  moral, 
and  spiritual  training.  I  have  visited  some  of  your 
schools  for  the  mentally  deficient.  You  need 
experts  to  teach  in  these,  and  we  need  experts  in 
the  missionary  field  for  developing  the  backward 
races. 

I  want  to  show  you  the  ideals  upon  which  Miss 
Thoburn  started  this  work,  and  those  ideals  take 
me  back  to  her  home  in  Saint  Clairsville,  Ohio. 
The  girls  were  told  the  story  of  that  home  until 
we  could  almost  see  it.  One  of  the  points  she  most 
impressed  upon  us  was  self-support.  There  was 
no  school  in  India  at  that  time  where  the  scholars 
could  work  their  way.  Her  enthusiasm  for  educa- 
tion made  the  parents  and  the  students  value  it  and 
be  willing  to  work  for  it  and  to  sacrifice  for  it,  and 
the  result  is  that  of  the  two  hundred  pupils  in  our 
college,  only  twenty-five  are  receiving  scholarships. 
Most  of  these  are  given  on  the  loan  plan  and  in 
most  cases  have  been  paid  back.  Another  feature  of 
the  school  is  that  a  third  of  the  pupils  are  supported 
by  their  brothers.  The  boys  that  have  received  an 
education  are  so  anxious  that  their  sisters  should 
be  educated  that  they  will  put  off  making  homes  for 
themselves  in  order  to  educate  their  sisters. 

Another  lesson  Miss  Thoburn  taught  us  was  the 
right  perspective  of  life,  the  right  value  of  things — 
"that  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance 


TRANSFORMED  HOMES  IN  INDIA  55 

of  things  which  he  possesseth."  We  were  made 
to  see  the  home  where  economy  was  practiced  in 
some  things,  but  not  in  the  buying  of  standard 
books  and  the  best  magazines.  The  result  is  that 
many  of  our  graduates  set  aside  one  tenth  of  their 
income  for  their  libraries.  That  lesson  taught  in 
the  home  in  Ohio  is  duplicated  in  the  homes  of 
Indian  women  to-day. 

Another  thing  she  brought  to  our  attention  was 
the  love  of  missions,  both  home  and  foreign.  She 
told  us  how  when  the  home  in  Ohio  was  paid  for 
Bishop  Thoburn's  father  brought  two  gold  eagles, 
and  said  to  his  wife:  "One  is  for  a  new  cloak  for 
you;  let  us  give  the  other  as  a  thank  offering  at 
the  missionary  collection."  And  the  mother  re- 
plied: "No,  I  will  turn  the  old  cloak,  and  wear  it 
another  year  or  two.  Let  us  give  both  as  a  thank 
offering."  I  heard  that  story  when  a  very  little 
girl,  and  I  know  many  of  Miss  Thoburn's  girls  are 
not  satisfied  with  giving  one  tenth  of  their  income, 
but  some  give  a  fifth,  and  others  even  a  third.  I 
could  go  on  telling  you  incidents  to  show  how  the 
lives  of  these  two  great  leaders  have  influenced 
India.  Methodism  has  done  many  great  things, 
but  I  do  not  think  Methodism  has  done  any  greater 
thing  than  the  sending  out  of  Bishop  Thoburn  and 
his  sister  to  us. 

Miss  Thoburn  was  a  student,  and  she  made  her 
pupils  do  well  not  only  in  government  examina- 
tions, but  made  lifelong  students  of  them.  You 
know,  in  India  woman  was  not  supposed  to  have 


56  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

any  brains.  But  under  Miss  Thoburn's  instruction 
woman  has  proved  that  she  has  brains.  Year  after 
year  in  the  Allahabad  University  girls  have  stood  at 
the  top  of  the  list  in  the  government  competitive  ex- 
amination. To  give  you  the  record  of  1906:  Over 
four  hundred  candidates,  both  men  and  women,  com- 
peted for  the  A.B.  examination,  and  a  girl  from 
our  college  was  first  in  the  list.  About  five  hundred 
took  the  next  examination,  corresponding  to  your 
sophomore.  One  of  our  students  again  headed  the 
list.  In  the  high  school  final  examination,  for  which 
over  a  thousand  boys  and  a  few  girls  appeared,  two 
girls  were  fifth  and  seventh  in  the  roll  of  honor. 

A  Presbyterian  missionary  when  speaking  of  her 
success  as  an  educationist  recently  said :  "Here  was 
a  rich  and  powerful  government  anxious  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  female  education,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  a  Christian  woman  without  money, 
prestige,  or  other  resources,  on  the  other.  Both 
had  the  same  object  in  view,  and  both  were  in  the 
same  field,  but  the  lone  missionary  worker  suc- 
ceeded, while  the  powerful  government  met  with 
comparative  failure.  The  whole  case  is  simply  a 
marvel.  It  is  a  picture  worthy  of  the  most  serious 
study." 

But  excelling  in  university  examinations  is  not 
everything.  About  eighteen  years  ago  a  Hindu 
friend  and  I  were  studying  Julius  Caesar  together. 
We  came  to  the  garden  scene  where  Portia  shows 
her  self-inflicted  wound  to  Brutus,  and  Brutus  is 
so  overcome  by  her  strength  of  character  that  he 


TRANSFORMED  HOMES  IN  INDIA  57 

kneels  and  prays,  "O  ye  gods,  render  me  worthy 
of  this  noble  wife."  My  friend  and  I  exclaimed 
together,  "Will  the  day  ever  come  when  our  men 
will  feel  this  way  toward  us  ?"  And  to  think  it  has 
come! — brought  about  by  the  efforts  of  the  man 
whom  we  come  to  honor  to-day,  and  his  sister  and 
others  like  them.  Again  and  again  the  husbands 
of  Miss  Thoburn's  girls  have  said,  "All  that  I  am 
I  owe  to  my  wife." 

Some  of  you  remember  Ram  Chandra  Bose,  who 
was  in  this  country  a  few  years  ago.  His  work 
carried  him  into  the  different  parts  of  India,  and 
at  a  big  convention  he  was  heard  to  say  that  the 
homes  of  Miss  Thoburn's  girls  were  the  most  beau- 
tiful Christian  homes  to  be  found  in  all  India. 
The  graduates  of  this  college  which  Miss  Thoburn 
founded  are  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  India. 
Since  the  founding  of  the  school  in  1870  over  six 
hundred  have  graduated  and  been  engaged  in  direct 
Christian  work.  To-day  there  are  one  hundred 
and  ten  of  our  graduates  who  are  to  be  found  not 
only  in  India  but  in  Singapore,  two  thousand  miles 
away,  and  in  Burma  and  Ceylon.  The  girls  are 
scattered  all  over  the  country  and  are  doing  a  noble 
work  as  teachers,  evangelists,  physicians,  home- 
makers,  and  mothers.  Just  to  give  you  an  illustra- 
tion of  one  of  the  students :  After  she  took  her 
A.B.  degree  she  worked  for  five  years  in  one  of 
the  schools  and  then  she  married  a  leading  lawyer. 
She  and  her  husband  have  been  editing  a  Christian 
magazine.      She   has   translated    some   of   Drum- 


58  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

mond's  works.  Another  graduate  on  reading  the 
Autobiography  of  Booker  T.  Washington  in  the 
Outlook  was  so  impressed  with  the  similarity  of 
the  social  conditions  in  the  South  with  those  of 
India  that  she  went  to  work  and  translated  this 
story. 

A  favorite  motto  of  Miss  Thoburn's  which  she 
kept  constantly  before  us  was : 

To  be  the  best  that  I  can  be 
For  Truth  and  Righteousness  and  Thee, 
Lord  of  my  life,  I  come. 

I  have  turned  aside  from  Bishop  Thoburn  to 
offer  my  tribute  to  his  sister.  The  two  worked  side 
by  side  in  this  great  work,  and  to-day  India  would 
crown  them  both  with  her  humble  garland  of  jas- 
mine and  she  would  plead  with  you  not  to  grow 
weary  in  your  efforts  in  her  behalf.  Each  nation 
has  its  gift.  India's  is  the  gift  of  an  intensely 
religious  nature.  Capture  it  for  Jesus  Christ,  for 
in  the  words  of  Keshub  Chander  Sen,  "None  but 
Jesus,  none  but  Jesus,  none  I  say  but  Jesus  ever 
deserved  this  precious  diadem  India,  and  Jesus 
shall  have  it.  May  India  adorn  herself  as  a  bride 
in  her  glistening  apparel  that  she  may  be  ready  to 
meet  him !" 


Ill 


A  REVIEW  OF  BISHOP  THOBURN'S  FIFTY 
YEARS  IN  INDIA 

It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  the  Jubilee 
of  Bishop  Thoburn's  missionary  career  should  be 
observed.  It  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  it  should  be 
observed  here  in  Meadville,  at  the  seat  of  learning 
where  he  "fused  his  live  soul  with  the  inert  stuff" 
of  books  and  problems  "before  attempting  smith- 
craft" as  a  missionary  leader. 

These  fifty  years  of  service  belong  to  the  latter 
half  of  a  period  which  must  bulk  largely  in  the  ulti- 
mate history  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  More  has 
been  done  by  the  Church  of  Christ  toward  giving 
the  gospel  to  the  world  in  this  new  missionary  cen- 
tury than  had  been  accomplished  in  the  previous 
fifteen  hundred  years — more  non-Christian  terri- 
tory occupied,  more  languages  mastered,  more  liter- 
ature created,  and  more  converts  gathered  from  the 
heathen  and  pagan  peoples  of  the  earth.  It  has 
been  a  time  of  "the  sudden  making  of  splendid 
names" — Carey  and  Judson,  Morrison  and  Moffat, 
Paton  and  Titus  Coan,  Griffith  John,  Livingstone, 
Mackay,  Hannington,  and  scores  of  others.  But 
high  up  among  all  the  great  names  of  missionaries 
sent  from  our  sister  churches  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  easily  first  among  those  who  have  gone  as  mis- 

59 


6o  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

sionaries  from  the  American  continent,  is  the  name 
of  the  missionary  leader  whose  Jubilee  of  service 
we  are  here  to  celebrate — James  Mills  Thoburn, 
Missionary  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  for  Southern  Asia!  We  offer  devout 
thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  having  raised 
up  in  our  own  communion  one  who,  in  a  great 
period  of  Christian  conquest,  has  proven  our  apos- 
tolic succession  by  apostolic  success,  and  who  will 
take  his  place  in  the  annals  of  Methodism  along 
with  Wesley  and  Asbury  as  a  founder  and  builder 
of  spiritual  empire. 

Bishop  Thoburn  has  become  widely  known  as  a 
missionary  prophet,  and  a  dreamer  of  great  dreams 
of  spiritual  victories.  In  this  he  but  exercises  more 
fully  than  the  majority  of  believers  his  rights  and 
privileges  under  the  great  promise  of  Joel,  and 
rebukes  those  whose  eyes  are  so  filled  with  "the 
things  that  perish"  that  they  cannot  see  the  things 
which  God  has  revealed  to  his  children.  But  he 
who  thinks  of  this  man  of  God  as  a  mere  dreamer 
falls  into  a  deep  slough  of  error.  By  the  same  grace 
of  God  which  made  him  a  dreamer  he  has  been  a 
tireless  doer.  He  ever  rose  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  "the  vision  splendid"  and  wrought  with  rare 
tact  and  great  fertility  of  resource  to  actualize  his 
vision.  His  record  of  solid  achievement  is  unpar- 
alleled in  the  history  of  the  last  half  century  of  mis- 
sionary activity.  The  mesh  of  any  human  net  that 
might  be  let  down  into  the  sea  of  his  varied  activ- 
ities would  be  too  coarse  to  bring  up  the  finest  and 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  61 

best  of  those  "issues  of  life"  of  which  the  Scriptures 
speak.  Only  God  who  searcheth  the  hearts  and 
trieth  the  reins  of  the  children  of  men  can  truly 
appraise  the  output  of  a  life,  but  we  may  seine  up 
some  of  those  achievements  which  unaided  human 
eyes  may  note,  and  pass  them  in  review  before  us. 

DISTRICT    CONFERENCES   AND   MISSIONS 

Among  the  largest,  but  probably  one  of  the  least 
known,  pieces  of  work  which  have  been  accomplished 
by  this  man  is  the  incorporation  in  the  Methodist 
Discipline  of  provisions  for  District  Conferences 
and  Missions,  with  well-defined  powers.  Dr.  Butler, 
Dr.  Parker,  and  others  rendered  great  help  in 
this  result;  but  it  was  by  the  tact  and  persistence 
of  Bishop  Thoburn  that  the  General  Conference 
finally  enacted  these  two  legislative  provisions. 

Our  foreign  missionary  career  as  a  Church  really 
began  when  that  great  man — Dr.  William  Butler — 
began  the  founding  of  our  Church  in  India.  Up  to 
that  time  we  had  never  faced  any  of  the  manifold 
administrative  problems  which  are  found  to  arise 
as  soon  as  foreign  missionary  work  is  seriously  un- 
dertaken. The  Methodist  Discipline  is  a  wonderful 
compendium  of  laws  and  rules,  but  up  to  that  time 
its  provisions  were  all  made  for  the  kind  of  churches 
with  which  Asbury,  McKendree,  Cartwright,  and 
the  mighty  Simpson  had  been  familiar.  Its  ritual 
was  melodious  and  solemn — in  English  only.  Any 
translation  of  it  necessarily  lost  its  best  flavor,  and 
became  sounding  words  and  tinkling  phrases.     No 


62  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

provision  existed  for  licensing  *and  controlling  such 
a  band  of  local  prea'chers,  teachers,  and  other 
helpers  as  was  so  urgently  needed,  who  were  below 
the  status  of  members  of  Annual  Conference,  but 
were  on  the  pay  rolls  of  the  Mission,  subject  to 
appointment  and  often  needing  discipline.  When 
the  first  Annual  Meeting  of  the  India  Mission  was 
held  these  serious  disciplinary  shortcomings  became 
very  evident.  In  his  "Missionary  Apprenticeship" 
the  Bishop  has  stated  some  of  the  difficulties  which 
confronted  them.     He  says : 

We  had  not  sat  in  council  an  hour  before  perplexi- 
ties began  to  meet  us.  The  first  question  raised  was  a 
most  important  one,  but  we  had  no  answer  ready  at 
hand.  Young  men  were  present  to  be  received  among 
us,  but  how  were  they  to  be  received?  The  Conference 
membership  was  to  be  held  on  the  other  side  of  the 
globe.  We  had  no  legal  right  to  touch  them,  and  yet 
we  could  not  but  see  that  we  as  a  body  were  expected 
to  do  something  in  the  premises,  and  even  if  .not  ex- 
pected, we  saw  at  a  glance  that  it  was  of  the  most  vital 
importance  to  the  future  harmony  and  efficiency  of  the 
mission  that  we  should  have  something  to  say  in  the 
matter.  .  .  . 

What  added  to  our  perplexity  was  the  discovery  that 
the  law  of  the  Church  had  made  no  manner  of  provision 
for  an  emergency  of  this  kind.  The  Discipline  was 
silent  on  the  subject  of  missionary  government.  The  i 
Missionary  Board  had  spoken,  but  in  vague  or  equivocal 
language.  A  small  Manual  for  the  use  of  missionaries 
had  been  published,  but  it  failed  to  deal  with  nearly 
all  the  really  important  questions  which  came  before  us. 
An  official  Letter  of  Instructions  had  been  sent  out  by 
the  Corresponding  Secretary,  but  this  also,  while  far  in 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  63 

advance  of  the  Manual,  failed  to  meet  our  difficulties, 
and  really  created  more  perplexity  than  it  removed. 
In  short,  we  found  ourselves  in  a  position  which  had  not 
been  anticipated  by  the  Church,  and  for  which  no 
proper  provision  had  been  made.  We  did  not  know 
what  to  do,  or  what  to  leave  undone.  Under  such 
circumstances  it  is  not  strange  that  we  thought  of  the 
only  provision  which  the  Discipline  of  the  Church  at 
that  time  afforded  us.  We  had  discovered  that  an 
Annual  Meeting  had  no  ecclesiastical  functions  whatever, 
and  no  certain  functions  of  any  kind;  then  why  not 
have  an  Annual  Conference?  Or,  failing  this,  why  not 
have  the  Annual  Meeting  legalized  and  its  functions 
specified?  To  us,  situated  as  we  were,  it  seemed  so 
reasonable  that  something  should  be  done  that  we  did 
not  hesitate  to  adopt  a  memorial  asking  the  General 
Conference  to  give  us  a  legal  status  as  an  Annual 
Conference.  .  .  . 

In  New  York,  however,  our  action  was  viewed  with 
no  little  misgiving.  The  reply  of  the  Corresponding 
Secretary  opened  with  a  frank  statement  of  his  appre- 
hension that  we  did  not  sufficiently  realize  the  solemn 
responsibility  resting  upon  us,  and  that  we  were  allowing 
our  minds  to  be  diverted  from  the  great  work  for  which 
we  had  been  sent  to  India.  We  were  exhorted  to  be 
constant  in  our  devotion,  and  not  to  allow  anything  to 
come  between  us  and  our  duty.  A  few  questions  were 
answered,  but  our  chief  difficulties  were  left  untouched. 
It  was  evident  at  a  glance  that  our  position  had  been 
wholly  misunderstood.  The  idea  of  a  dozen  young  men, 
in  a  remote  corner  of  the  earth,  without  experience, 
without  churches,  and  without  membership,  asking  for 
the  formal  organization  of  an  Annual  Conference  seemed 
preposterous  in  the  last  degree.  In  America  such  a 
thing  had  never  been  done,  and  in  India  it  seemed  more 
out  of  place  than  at  home.  And  as  to  legalizing  the 
Annual  Meeting,  or  making  any  special  legislative  pro- 


64  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

vision  for  a  handful  of  young  men  in  a  remote  country, 
it  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  To  a  distant  observer  on 
the  other  side  of  the  globe  it  very  naturally  seemed 
that  we  were  impatient  for  full  ecclesiastical  rights,  and 
that  part  of  the  time  which  we  had  been  devoting  to 
questions  of  organization  might  have  been  better  em- 
ployed in  prayer  and  devotion. 

To  cut  that  Gordian  knot  Bishop  Thoburn 
carried  through  to  completion  the  law  by  which 
District  Conferences  were  called  into  being  and 
clothed  with  powers  of  a  definite  character,  and 
provision  was  made  also  for  Missions  having  the 
ecclesiastical  status  of  District  Conferences.  These 
two  provisions  have  revolutionized  foreign  mission- 
ary administration.  In  India  and  Malaysia  to-day 
there  are  over  forty  District  Conferences  with  a 
membership  of  over  two  thousand.  The  district 
superintendent  is  the  presiding  officer.  The  preach- 
ers in  charge  are  the  cabinet,  and  the  examinations, 
committee  work,  and  appointments  are  taken  as 
seriously  as  those  of  the  Annual  Conferences.  It 
gives  the  humble  exhorters,  teachers,  and  local 
preachers  a  definite  status,  and  makes  adequate 
provision  for  their  appointment,  direction,  and  dis- 
cipline. In  the  older  portions  of  that  field  the  Dis- 
trict Conferences  are  the  real  centers  of  power. 
The  membership  of  each  one  of  these  bodies  is  as 
great  or  greater  than  the  membership  in  the  Annual 
Conferences,  and  it  is  in  their  deliberations  that  the 
work  of  all  the  smaller  schools  and  circuits  is  scru- 
tinized and  made  effective.  This  one  service  is  of 
untold  value  to  the  work  of  every  foreign  field. 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  65 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN 

Within  forty  years  an  incalculable  total  of  moral 
and  spiritual  energy  has  been  applied  to  the  work 
of  our  Church  through  the  new  ministries  made 
possible  to  women  by  the  woman's  missionary  soci- 
eties and  the  deaconess  movement.  Many  human 
agencies  have  cooperated  with  the  Spirit  in  releasing 
these  unused  forces  for  the  work  of  Christ,  but  no 
man  in  our  communion  was  alive  to  the  need  and  pos- 
sibility of  this  new  agency  so  early,  and  none  of  our 
Church  leaders  has  done  so  much  as  Bishop  Tho- 
burn  to  make  these  new  ministries  at  once  possible 
and  legal.  It  was  three  years  before  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  founded — in  1866 
— that  he,  shaping  a  pen  from  the  wing  of  a  vulture 
that  wheeled  slowly  above  his  tent  in  a  North  India 
village,  used  it  to  write  his  sister,  Isabella  Thoburn, 
of  the  futility  of  evangelizing  heathen  lands  unless 
the  women  of  those  lands  were  reached  by  the  min- 
istry of  Christian  women,  asking  her  how  she 
would  like  to  leave  her  schoolroom  in  America  and 
come  to  India  to  begin  to  train  girls  for  this  great 
service.  After  three  years  of  agitation  among  the 
missionaries  and  in  the  Church  papers  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  begun  by  Mrs. 
Butler,  Mrs.  Parker,  and  others  whose  hearts  the 
Lord  had  burdened  with  this  new  task,  and  Isabella 
Thoburn  was  their  first  missionary.  Dr.  Clara 
Swain  was  next  appointed,  the  first  lady  medical 
missionary  sent  to  minister  to  the  necessities  of  the 


66  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

uncounted  millions  of  non-Christian  women.  In 
framing  and  securing  the  legislation  necessary  to 
give  this  ministry  of  women  and  the  later  deaconess 
movement  a  proper  disciplinary  status,  and  work- 
able relations  with  existing  benevolent  organiza- 
tions,  Bishop  Thoburn's  aid   was   invaluable. 

INTERPRETATION    OF    THE   DIVINE   PURPOSE   IN    THE 
BRITISH    OCCUPATION  OF   INDIA 

Bishop  Thoburn's  first  appointment  in  India  gave 
him  heavy  preaching  and  pastoral  duties  among 
English  officers,  soldiers,  and  civilians  in  the  moun- 
tain city  of  Naini  Tal.  But  when  he  discovered 
that  official  chaplains  of  the  established  Church 
regarded  all  such  work  an  infringement  of  their 
rights,  he  determined  to  "go  unto  the  Gentiles." 
Then  came  several  years  of  lonely  work  in  a  native 
station  at  Pauri,  where,  shut  away  from  other  mis- 
sionaries, with  the  vast  and  silent  peaks  of  the 
Himalaya  Mountains  before  him,  he  began  to  see 
the  problem  of  India's  salvation  in  its  entirety.  In 
later  contact  with  English  and  Eurasian  life  as 
presiding  elder  of  the  Lucknow  District,  he  became 
profoundly  convinced  that  God  had  given  the 
heathen  millions  of  India  unto  the  care  of  the  great- 
est Christian  nation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  for 
ends  of  mercy  vast  beyond  the  range  of  human 
thought.  He  saw  that  there,  among  the  original 
Aryan  peoples,  and  at  the  heart  of  all  the  thousand 
millions  of  heathen  and  pagan  peoples  yet  to  be 
given  unto  Christ  for  an  inheritance,  the  British 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  67 

nation  was  to  do  a  work  which  would  mightily 
hasten  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

It  seems  inexplicable  that  English  ministers  did 
not  so  interpret  God's  purpose  with  their  nation. 
It  is  strange  that  no  chaplain  of  the  English  Church 
grasped  the  idea  and  set  himself  to  work  it  out. 
Like  the  formal  priests  whom  the  Pope  (in  "The 
Ring  and  the  Book")  blames  for  not  helping  save 
Pompilia  from  the  persecution  of  a  husband  who  put, 

day  by  day,  hour  by  hour, 
The  untried  torture  to  the  untouched  place, 

these  men, 

Bound  to  deserve  in  the  matter,  prove  at  need 

Unprofitable  through  the  very  pains 

We  gave  to  train  them  well  and  start  them  fair, — 

Are  found  too  stiff,  with  standing  ranked  and  ranged, 

For  onset  in  good  earnest,  too  obtuse 

Of  ear,  through  iteration  of  command, 

For  catching  quick  the  sense  of  the  real  cry. 

This  is  the  man  proves  irreligiousest 

Of  all  mankind,  religion's  parasite! 

This  may  forsooth  plead  dinned  ear,  jaded  sense, 

The  vice  o'  the  watcher  who  bides  near  the  bell. 

With  Bishop  Thoburn,  to  decide  has  ever  been  to 
act.  No  sooner  had  he  seen  this  purpose  of  God 
for  the  British  government  in  India  than  he  began 
to  devise  plans  for  the  evangelization  of  English 
and  European  populations.  Dr.  J.  H.  Messmore, 
writing  of  that  period,  says,  "It  was  at  this  time 
that  Thoburn's  madness  began  to  develop."     He 


68  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

wrote  to  William  Taylor,  whose  evangelistic  tread 
had  shaken  three  continents,  begging  him  to  come 
from  Australia  and  grapple  with  the  problem. 
Taylor  came  and  for  four  years  carried  forward  an 
evangelistic  campaign  among  the  English  and  Eu- 
rasian populations  of  India — in  Bombay,  Poona, 
Madras,  Bangalore,  Cawnpore,  Allahabad,  and  Cal- 
cutta— that  makes  one  of  the  most  splendid  chap- 
ters in  the  new  Acts  of  the  Apostles  now  being 
written  by  the  deeds  of  God's  servants  in  the  earth. 
But  the  plan  of  Taylor's  work  all  lay  in  the  mind 
of  this  man  whose  Jubilee  of  service  we  are  here  to 
celebrate.  At  the  end  of  four  years  of  truly  heroic 
labors  Taylor  left  for  the  United  States  never  to 
return  to  India,  and  Bishop  Thoburn  was  trans- 
ferred by  Bishop  Harris  from  the  original  India 
Conference  to  the  "Bombay  and  Bengal  Mission," 
and  given  charge  of  the  work  in  Calcutta.  It  is 
from  this  time — January  of  1874 — that  the  Church 
and  the  world  began  to  know  him.  All  his  previous 
experience  had  been  his  preparation  for  the  service 
he  was  now  to  begin.  Crowds  waited  on  his  min- 
istry. A  new  church  begun  by  Taylor,  finished 
after  his  arrival,  proved  to  be  too  small  from  the 
day  of  its  dedication.  The  Corinthian  Theater 
was  leased  on  Sunday  nights,  in  faith  that  God 
would  supply  the  funds,  and  every  Sunday  night 
this  playhouse  was  filled  with  vast  audiences  of 
English  and  Eurasian  people  crowding  to  hear 
this  fresh  voice  calling  them  to  repentance  and  the 
new  life  in  Christ.     Nothing  like  it  had  ever  been 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  60 

known  in  Asia.  It  was  like  Paul's  career  in 
Ephesus.  Three  hundred  souls  were  known  to  be 
saved  during  the  first  year.  Into  the  smooth  and 
dead  formality  of  official  Anglicanism,  and  the  quiet 
and  order  of  non-conforming  mission  churches 
came  this  ringing,  authoritative  call  to  repent  and 
be  converted.  The  joyous  songs  and  testimonies 
of  scores  who  had  been  reclaimed  or  converted  were 
heard  in  the  capital  city  of  the  greatest  idolatrous 
empire  on  the  earth.  In  speaking  of  this  work 
the  Bishop  says : 

The  genuineness  of  the  work  was  'attested  by  the 
remarkable  hold  which  it  gained  upon  the  more  aban- 
doned and  godless  classes.  An  inmate  of  a  house  of 
refuge  was  taken  to  one  of  the  meetings  by  a  Christian 
lady,  and  on  her  way  home  was  asked  how  she  liked  it. 
"It  is  the  strangest  church  I  ever  saw,"  was  her  reply. 
"It  seemed  to  me  that  all  the  bad  people  in  Calcutta 
were  there."  It  was  the  New  Testament  ministry  of 
Christ  repeating  itself  again  in  our  day.  The  Friend  of 
sinners  was  there,  and  the  very  classes  who  are  supposed 
to  have  no  religious  interest  of  any  kind  flocked  around 
him,  as  in  olden  time.  A  year  later  I  found,  by  actual 
count,  that  twenty-five  per  cent  of  all  the  members  thus 
gathered  in  had  before  their  conversion  been  intem- 
perate persons. 

Evangelistic  fires  burned  on  steadily  for  years. 
The  Sailor's  Coffee  Rooms  were  opened  in  one  of 
the  vilest  streets  of  that  seaport,  and  literally  hun- 
dreds of  seamen  were  led  to  Christ,  and  that  por- 
tion of  the  city  was  transformed  into  a  choice  resi- 
dence district.  A  school  for  girls  was  begun  by 
faith.     Another  for  boys  soon  followed.     A  Press 


jo  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

was  opened.  A  new  church  was  erected  on  a  splen- 
did site,  and  paid  for  after  almost  miraculous  efforts. 
The  Lucknow  Witness  was  brought  from  its  pro- 
vincial home  to  Calcutta,  the  name  changed  to  The 
India  Witness,  and  this  man  assumed  the  editor- 
ship in  addition  to  all  his  other  labors.  The  paper 
became  at  once  the  leading  Christian  newspaper  in 
all  India,  and  has  never  lost  its  crown. 

From  other  cities  in  South  and  Central  India 
advice  was  asked,  and  help  given,  and  later  on  came 
the  two  great  advance  steps  by  which  Rangoon  and 
Singapore  were  opened  to  the  gospel,  and  in  later 
years  he  who  had  interpreted  in  thought  and  deed 
the  purposes  of  God  through  the  British  in  India 
was  sent  by  the  secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  to  begin  the  evangelistic  and  spiritual  in- 
terpretation of  American  trusteeship  in  the  Philip- 
pine Islands.  What  a  record  of  dreams  come  true ! 
— Lucknow  to  Cawnpore ;  Cawnpore  to  Calcutta, 
where  an  empire  still  feels  the  mighty  blessing  of 
God  upon  his  constructive  career;  from  Calcutta  to 
Rangoon,  from  Rangoon  to  Singapore,  that  melt- 
ing-pot and  meeting-place  of  the  nations,  and  from 
Singapore  to  Manila  to  plant  our  Church  in  the 
capital  of  a  country  destined  to  be  the  first  republic 
on  Asiatic  soil.  That  triumphal  missionary  march 
through  the  heart  of  a  pagan  continent  is  unpar- 
alleled in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  All 
glory  be  to  God  who  called  this  our  brother,  trained 
him  in  his  own  way,  and  guided  and  empowered 
him   in   all   these  vast   undertakings!      Missionary 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  71 

history  furnishes  no  better  comment  on  the  great 
words,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world ;  and  lo,  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

MASS    MOVEMENTS 

Bishop  Thoburn  is  recognized  all  over  India  and 
the  East  as  the  most  conspicuous  leader  of  what 
has  come  to  be  called  the  mass  movement  in  foreign 
missions.  The  late  Bishop  Parker,  Dr.  T.  J.  Scott, 
Dr.  Robert  Hoskins,  Dr.  P.  M.  Buck,  Rev.  Samuel 
Knowles,  and  Dr.  E.  F.  Frease  and  half  a  score 
besides  have  had  a  large  part  in  beginning  this 
rapid  ingathering  of  heathen  converts ;  but  because 
of  his  grasp  of  the  whole  problem,  and  because  of 
his  official  position  and  his  entire  fearlessness  in 
following  whithersoever  the  Saviour  plainly  led 
the  way,  it  has  been  a  part  of  the  great  list  of 
achievements  of  Bishop  Thoburn  that  has  approved 
and  carried  forward  this  work  in  the  face  of  hostile 
criticism  from  fellow  missionaries  until  it  has  not 
only  swept  tens  of  thousands  of  idolatrous  people 
into  the  wide  current  of  Christianity,  but  he  has 
compelled  the  approval  of  the  policy  by  many  of 
the  leading  missionaries  of  all  the  churches  in  India. 
The  Lord  Bishop  of  Madras  (Anglican)  has  not 
only  announced  his  belief  in  this  method  of  work,  but 
has  inaugurated  it  all  over  his  diocese,  while  the 
leading  American  missions  which  sought  to  oppose 
this  form  of  missionary  work  at  first,  and  declared 
that  "if  a  fox  shall  go  up  he  will  break  down  their 
walls,"  have  openly  acknowledged  their  error,  and 


72  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

are  open  advocates  of  the  mass  movement  in 
missions. 

The  established  method  of  dealing  with  inquirers 
in  many  parts  of  the  mission  field  has  been  to  or- 
ganize them  into  classes,  withholding  baptism  for 
six  months  or  more  until  it  was  certain  that  no  low 
or  false  motive  prompted  them  to  seek  to  become 
Christians.  Meanwhile  they  were  taught  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Christian  profession.  Many  became 
weary  of  the  long  inquisition,  and  dropped  out  of 
the  lists  and  were  lost  to  the  Church.  Bishop  Tho- 
burn's  idea  is  that  the  methods  of  Pentecost  and  of 
the  apostolic  age  are  those  which  the  Spirit  would 
have  used  in  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  Then 
three  thousand  were  baptized  in  a  day,  and  in  every 
city  whither  the  apostles  went  men,  women,  and 
children  were  baptized  and  received  into  the  Church 
as  soon  as  they  gave  evidence  of  an  honest  desire 
to  seek  the  pardon  of  their  sins. 

In  pursuance  of  this  method  God  has  wonder- 
fully blessed  the  Church  in  India  over  which  the 
"Holy  Ghost  made  him  an  overseer."  When  he 
responded  to  the  address  of  welcome  made  to  him 
in  Bombay  on  landing  in  India  as  Bishop  in  Decem- 
ber in  1888,  he  said  in  the  hearing  of  the  writer,  "I 
have  not  come  to  fill  an  office.  /  have  come  to  India 
to  do  a  work."  When  he  was  elected  to  lead  our 
hosts  there  we  had  less  than  fourteen  thousand 
members.  Now  there  are  over  two  hundred  thou- 
sand, and  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Church  has 
kept  ahead  of  its  marvelous  growth  in  numbers. 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  73 

And  great  as  are  these  totals,  they  are  but  a  tithe 
of  what  might  have  been  gathered  if  the  home 
Church  had  supplied  the  workers  necessary  to  train 
and  edify  the  tens  of  thousands  who  were  as  eager  to 
come  into  our  Church  as  any  that  have  been  received. 
The  inadequate  response  of  the  Church  to  his  ap- 
peals for  help  in  this  new  era  of  modern  missions 
has  been  largely  responsible  for  that  partial  break 
in  his  health  which  has  made  it  imperative  that  the 
shoulders  so  long  bent  under  imperial  tasks  should 
be  given  some  relief. 

And  what  is  the  significance  of  this  added  achieve- 
ment in  this  consecrated  life?  Nothing  less  than 
this,  for  one  thing,  that  it  immeasurably  accelerates 
the  rate  of  all  missionary  progress  and  is  thus  equal 
to  doubling  or  quadrupling  all  the  missionary  forces 
of  India  and  of  all  lands  that  feel  the  thrill  of  this 
modern  call  to  "attempt  great  things  for  God."  . 

But  time  fails  me  to  pass  in  review  the  contribu- 
tions of  this  servant  of  God  to  the  cause  of  true 
scriptural  evangelism,  to  the  arousing  of  the  home 
churches  to  their  duty  and  privilege,  and  to  every 
cause  that  makes  for  the  victory  of  righteousness. 

What  are  some  of  the  qualities  of  the  man  which 
have  made  these  results  possible? 

First,  a  certain  native  largeness  of  mind  that  is 
best  expressed  by  the  term  "grasp."  He  saw  things 
whole.  Patient  with  items  when  administrative 
matters  were  in  hands,  he  never  allowed  items  to 
eclipse  totals.  Parts  of  great  problems  were  seen 
as  parts,  and  not  confused  with  the  whole. 


74  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Second,  tremendous  powers  of  endurance.  Dur- 
ing twenty-five  years  his  frail  body  has  borne  up 
under  loads  that  would  have  killed  a  man  of  average 
physical  stamina  in  a  quarter  of  that  time.  While 
in  Calcutta  he  was  pastor  of  the  greatest  Protestant 
church  in  Asia,  with  a  revival  on  his  hands  at 
every  service;  presiding  elder  of  a  district  covering 
at  first  nearly  one  half  of  India,  editor  of  the  lead- 
ing weekly  journal,  striking  body  blows  at  intem- 
perance, child-marriage,  and  scores  of  living,  pal- 
pitating questions  which  had  to  do  with  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  had  administrative  and  financial 
burdens  upon  him  in  connection  with  the  institu- 
tions which  had  been  begun  in  Calcutta,  and  with 
the  scattered  churches  of  William  Taylor's  planting. 

Third,  the  gift  of  versatility.  He  could  do  more 
things  and  do  them  all  well  than  any  man  I  ever 
knew. 

Fourth,  great  courage.  Duty  calls  him  to  sur- 
render his  salary  and  trust  God  for  bread.  It  is 
done!  A  great  church  is  needed  in  the  capital  of 
an  empire  containing  one  out  of  five  of  the  earth's 
population.  He  has  no  funds  for  site  or  structure. 
A  poor  widow  puts  twenty-one  dollars  in  his  hands 
for  the  needed  enterprise.  He  accepts  a  widow's 
leadership  in  Christian  enterprise,  and  proceeds  to 
erect  the  most  commodious  and  best  located  church 
in  that  great  city,  and  the  list  might  be  expanded 
by  pages. 

Fifth,  a  saving  sense  of  humor.  To  a  degree  not 
suspected  by  those   not   intimate  with   him  he  is 


BISHOP  THOBURN  IN  INDIA  75 

blessed  with  a  vein  of  rich  humor — an  inheritance 
which  is  the  birthright  of  one  but  a  single  genera- 
tion removed  from  a  small  island  in  the  north  of 
Europe. 

Sixth,  entire  consecration  to  God.  "He  chose 
Christ  for  a  career." 

Seventh,  complete  absorption  in  missionary  work. 
During  the  General  Conference  of  1896  one  of  the 
highest  officials  of  the  Church  suggested  to  him 
the  probability  that  he  could  be  made  a  General 
Superintendent  if  he  would  consent.  His  answer 
was  that  he  could  consider  nothing  that  would  inter- 
fere with  his  missionary  service  in  India. 

And  all  in  all  this  heroic  servant  of  God  is  not 
only  the  most  noted  evangelistic  missionary  of  our 
day,  but  incomparably  the  best  loved  man  in  Meth- 
odism ;  and  while  such  as  he  are  placed  in  positions 
of  power  among  us,  we  shall  continue  our  career 
as  a  Church  winning  souls,  fighting  unrighteous- 
ness, and  hastening  the  day  when  "the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and  he  shall  reign  in  the 
earth." 


IV 
HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE 

We  meet  to-day  to  do  honor  to  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  a  servant  of  humanity.  And  in  doing 
honor  to  him  we  do  honor  to  ourselves,  and  to  the 
great  causes  with  which  his  life  has  been  knit. 
Fifty  years  ago,  a  youth  of  twenty-three,  James 
Mills  Thoburn  left  this  community,  sundered  ties 
that  were  precious  and  tenacious,  and  giving  will- 
ing ear  to  a  Voice  that  had  been  calling  him,  he 
set  his  face  toward  that  far-away  land  to  whose 
people  he  had  already  given  his  heart  and  to  whose 
enlightenment  he  had  consecrated  his  energies  and 
his  life. 

Half  a  century  of  years  have  slipped  over  the 
edge  of  time  into  eternity  since  that  day  of  his  first 
departure  for  that  distant  land  of  great  possibilities 
and  of  marvelous  achievements.  For  fifty  years 
he  has  had  a  conspicuous  part  in  developing  these 
possibilities,  and  has  contributed  his  full  share  in 
the  bulking  up  of  these  achievements. 

We  look  at  India  to-day,  and  recalling  the  India 
of  fifty  years  ago,  we  say  with  wonder  and  with 
gratitude,  "What  hath  God  wrought!"  And  then 
we  remind  ourselves  that  God  has  wrought  mightily 
in  India  because  in  various  parts  of  the  Christian 
world  he  has  found  men  and  women  of  high  ideals 

76 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE         ;/ 

who  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  have  given  them- 
selves up  to  high  service  in  that  land.  Without  them 
these  marvelous  achievements  could  not  have  been 
wrought. 

It  was  the  coming  together  of  the  divine  and  the 
human  that  enabled  God  to  lift  up  humankind  in 
India.  Many  heard  God's  call  for  the  deliverance 
of  that  country  and  people.  They  responded.  They 
gave  without  stint.  They  endured  hardship.  They 
labored  with  unfailing  fidelity.  They  toiled  with 
joy  through  sacrifice.  They  were  undismayed  by 
difficulties.  They  defied  the  pestilence.  They  were 
unafraid  of  famine.  They  met  reverses  with  courage. 
They  were  troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  distressed ; 
perplexed,  but  not  in  despair;  persecuted,  but  not 
forsaken ;  cast  down,  but  not  destroyed.  Many  sealed 
their  covenant  with  their  lives.  But  the  cause  they 
loved  prospered.  The  Captain  they  followed  tri- 
umphed. The  people  they  served  were  lifted  up. 
And  he  who  declared  himself  to  be  the  Light  of 
the  World  became  through  their  undying  labors 
the  Light  of  India. 

Foremost  among  the  great-souled  men  and 
women  who  have  given  themselves  for  India's  re- 
demption stands  James  M.  Thoburn:  honored  and 
loved  in  every  part  of  India  for  his  unparalleled 
devotion  to  the  betterment  of  its  people;  known 
throughout  the  world  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
modern  missionaries ;  and  held  in  sincere  and  rever- 
ent affection  in  every  corner  of  universal  Methodism 
as  a  firm  believer  in  its  doctrine,  a  fervent  exponent 


78  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

of  its  experience  and  spirit,  and  a  wise  and  indus- 
trious builder  upon   its  foundations. 

In  the  story  of  world-wide  Methodism,  in  the 
record  of  the  development  of  modern  India,  and  in 
the  inspiring  and  romantic  recitals  of  the  mission- 
ary enterprises  of  the  last  half  century  the  name 
of  James  M.  Thoburn  must  be  give  a  place  of  con- 
spicuous honor,  because  it  stands  always  for  the 
deepest  consecration,  the  most  unsparing  labors, 
and  the  most  distinguished  achievements  performed 
with  the  utmost  self-effacement  for  the  sake  of 
humanity  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Bishop  Thoburn's  long  life  of  lofty  service  is  an 
excellent  text  for  my  message.  He  is  an  incarna- 
tion of  the  highest  ideals  committed  to  the  highest 
service.  As  such  he  is  to  us  to-day,  and  has  been 
for  many  years,  a  source  of  unfailing  inspiration. 

Every  man  is  subject  to  the  overlordship  of  some 
ideal.  It  may  be  high.  It  may  be  low.  It  may  be 
indifferent.  But  the  ideal  determines  the  life.  As 
a  man  "thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  The  ideal 
influencing  heart,  soul,  imagination,  thought,  ex- 
presses itself  in  activity,  character,  life.  The  low 
ideal  produces  the  base  life,  with  all  its  attendant 
distresses,  disappointments,  and  disasters.  The 
high  ideal  produces  the  noble  life,  rich  with  graces, 
services,  benedictions  that  bless  mankind  and  bring 
contentment  to  the  heart  of  the  individual  who  is 
under  its  mystic  and  benignant  sway. 

Clearly  it  is  the  duty  of  the  individual  to  yield  to 
the    dominance   of   the   highest   ideal.      Not   only 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE  79 

because  from  its  influence  emerges  the  largest  meas- 
ure of  personal  contentment,  but,  rather,  because 
it  enables  him  to  live  at  the  maximum  of  efficiency 
for  the  benefit  of  humanity.  It  does  not  need  to 
be  demonstrated  in  these  days  that  "none  of  us 
liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself." 
The  influence  of  the  ideal  goes  far  beyond  the 
individual  in  whose  life  it  is  manifested. 

The  highest  ideal  is  that  which  makes  the  high- 
est and  best  life.  And  it  must  be,  therefore,  that 
this  ideal  has  its  source  of  inspiration  in  the  best 
life.  If  it  reaches  the  best  it  must  come  from  the 
best.  And  it  is  so,  for  we  find  the  highest  ideal  and 
the  best  life  centering  in  Jesus  Christ.  President 
Hyde,  in  his  book,  The  College  Man  and  the  College 
Woman,  appeals  to  students  in  behalf  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  these  words:  "Start  where  you  will  in 
the  moral  world,  if  you  follow  principles  to  their 
conclusions  they  always  lead  you  up  to>  Christ. 
He  touched  life  so  deeply,  so  broadly,  and  so  truly 
that  all  brave,  generous  living  is  summed  up  in  him. 
Starting  with  the  code  you  have  here  worked  out 
for  yourselves,  translating  it  into  positive  terms, 
and  enlarging  it  to  the  dimensions  of  the  world  you 
are  about  to  enter,  your  code  becomes  simply  a 
fresh  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  All  that  we  have  been  saying  has  its 
counterpart  in  that  great  life  of  his.  He  gave  his 
best;  and  how  good  and  beneficent  it  was!" 

But  the  highest  ideal  may  be  defeated  of  its 
worthy  purpose.     It  must  manifest  itself  in  high 


8o  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

endeavor  in  order  to  maintain  its  vitality.  This 
was  particularly  true  in  the  case  of  our  Lord.  He 
was  under  the  influence  of  the  highest  ideals,  in  his 
heart  were  the  stirrings  of  the  noblest  motives,  and 
his  life  of  unceasing  endeavor  for  the  sake  of  hu- 
manity gave  validity  and  vitality  to  the  ideal  that 
controlled  him. 

The  example  of  Jesus  is  before  us,  then,  as  the 
most  conspicuous  illustration  of  this  principle.  We 
must  draw  our  inspiration  from  him.  The  great 
motive  of  his  life  was  redemption,  the  great  pur- 
pose was  service.  If  redemption  was  to  be  wrought 
only  at  the  price  of  self-abasement  he  was  willing 
to  pay  that  price.  The  self-abnegation  of  Jesus  for 
the  redemption  of  humanity  is  amazing.  We  are 
told  by  one  who  knew  the  mind  of  Jesus  that  he, 
"being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery 
to  be  equal  with  God :  but  made  himself  of  no  repu- 
tation, and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant, 
and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men:  and  being 
found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself, 
and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of 
the  cross." 

Jesus  put  the  emphasis  upon  service.  His  whole 
life  is  an  instance  of  sublime  devotion  to  the  passion 
for  humanity.  It  possessed  him.  He  could  not 
shake  it  off.  He  did  not  try  to.  He  yielded  him- 
self to  it  without  restraint.  From  the  day  that 
he  said  to  his  bewildered  parents,  "Wist  ye  not 
that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business?"  to  the 
hour  when  he  declared  to  his  chosen  few,  "I  must 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE  81 

work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me,  while  it 
is  day:  the  night  cometh,  when  no  man  can 
work,"  he  never  got  a  moment's  release  from 
the  driving  dominance  of  that  divine  passion  for 
humanity. 

He  withheld  nothing  that  could  meet  human 
need.  His  Father  had  given  the  best  he  had  for 
the  redemption  of  mankind :  "For  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life."  This  Jesus  said  of  his  own 
accord  concerning  the  loving-kindness  of  God  and 
his  own  mission  for  the  succoring  of  humanity. 
God  gave  the  best  he  had  for  the  highest  serv- 
ice. Jesus  Christ  gave  the  best  he  had  to  meet 
the  needs  of  humankind.  And  no  equipment  of 
mind,  heart,  soul,  body  that  any  man  or  woman 
possesses  is  too  precious  to  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice 
for  the  sake  of  the  human  brotherhood.  Every 
man  who  is  under  the  sway  of  the  highest  ideal 
must — if  he  is  true  to  that  ideal — yield  himself  to 
the  highest  service  he  can  render  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  For  "every 
man  contains  in  himself  the  elements  of  all  the  rest 
of  humanity ;  and  some  time  or  other  to  every  man 
must  come  the  consciousness  of  this  vaster  life." 
And  with  this  consciousness  must  come  also  a  recog- 
nition and  appreciation  of  the  vaster  obligation  to 
meet  and  supply,  as  far  as  he  may  be  able,  the  needs 
of  the  rest  of  humanity.  This  Jesus  did.  This  all 
must   do  who  name  his  name,   and  recognize  his 


82  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

gracious  sovereignty,  and  yield  themselves  to  the 
sway  of  his  authority. 

This  brings  us  to  the  statement  that  the  best  men 
and  women  must  give  themselves  to  the  best  serv- 
ice. It  would  be  absurd  to  put  a  stoker  in  command 
of  a  battleship.  The  best  equipped  men  are  sought 
for  the  places  of  greatest  responsibility  in  trade  and 
in  the  professions.  So,  in  the  ampler  fields  of  the 
higher  service,  where  character  is  to  be  formed, 
where  civilizations  are  to  be  created,  where  races 
are  to  be  redeemed,  and  where  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  to  be  established,  the  best  equipped  men  and 
women  should  address  themselves  to  the  most  dif- 
ficult tasks.  An  Irish  poet  in  commemorating  the 
execution  of  a  patriot  declares  that  "the  fittest  place 
where  man  can  die  is  where  he  dies  for  man." 
And,  while  this  is  true,  one  can  say  with  equal 
truth  that  the  fittest  place  where  man  can  live  is 
where  he  lives  for  man :  for  living  for  humanity  is 
quite  as  valuable  a  factor  in  the  higher  develop- 
ment of  the  brotherhood  as  dying. 

But  how  many  there  are  who  are  unwilling  to 
live  at  the  maximum  of  their  efficiency  for  the  bene- 
fit of  humanity!  How  many  gifted  men  and 
women,  who  have  enjoyed  the  bounty  and  privilege 
of  God's  favor,  repudiate  their  obligations  to  God 
and  refuse  to  give  ear  to  the  voice  of  human  need ! 
They  have  full  equipment  for  service.  The  oppor- 
tunities for  the  employment  of  that  equipment 
appeal  to  them  from  every  side.  But  they  are  un- 
willing to  adjust  equipment  to  opportunity.     The 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE  S3 

appeal  of  the  human  brotherhood  falls  upon  dull 
ears,  when  no  man  who  has  had  the  chance  to 
succor  humanity  has  the  right  to  be  deaf  to  the  cry 
of  his  brother  man  for  help.  They  shut  their  eyes 
to  the  vision  of  the  world's  sin  and  suffering,  when 
no  man  who  can  do  anything  to  cleanse  away  the 
sin  of  the  world  or  to  mitigate  human  suffering  has 
the  right  to  be  blind  to  these  harsh  and  appealing 
conditions.  They  withhold  their  hands  from 
gentle  ministry  toward  their  fellows,  while  sorrow, 
poverty,  ignorance,  degradation,  injustice,  oppres- 
sion, violence,  passion,  debauchery,  hatred  are  mak- 
ing their  frightful  scars  upon  human  society  every- 
where, when  no  man  who  has  felt  the  touch  of  the 
compassionate  Jesus  has  the  right  to  disappoint  the 
just  expectations  of  his  brother  man. 

But  not  only  should  the  best  men  and  women 
give  themselves  to  the  best  service ;  the  best  service 
should  be  given  to  the  most  needy.  The  best 
equipped  for  the  hardest  place,  is  the  rule  that  will 
yield  the  best  results.  . 

Christianity  is  the  greatest  force  that  ever  touched 
the  lives  of  men.  It  embodies  the  noblest  philan- 
thropy, the  truest  philosophy,  the  purest  ethics, 
and  the  sanest  sociology,  and  inspires  the  finest 
character  and  the  loftiest  ideals  of  service.  But 
Christianity  needs  to  be  interpreted.  The  best  in- 
terpretation of  life  is  always  through  the  highest 
type  of  life.  And  this  Christianity  furnishes. 
Who,  then,  is  best  qualified  "to  interpret  Christian- 
ity ?    He  who  is  best  equipped.    The  man  who  has 


84  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

a  fine  and  true  sense  of  justice,  who  thinks  soundly, 
who  has  a  keen  and  sympathetic  appreciation  of 
all  forms  of  beauty,  who  has  a  deep  and  consuming 
love  of  humanity,  who  believes  in  the  steady  upward 
development  of  social  conditions,  and  in  the  ulti- 
mate realization  of  an  ideal  social  order  centering 
in  Jesus  Christ.  When  those  well  qualified  to  in- 
terpret Christianity  have  endeavored  to  perform 
this  service  they  have  won  success.  Those  whose 
work  in  this  direction  has  been  successful  have  been 
wise,  just,  kind,  thoughtful,  helpful,  industrious, 
consecrated,  strong  in  faith,  and  cheerful  in  spirit. 
They  have  gone  forth  into  the  hard  places,  and  have 
laid  the  enduring  foundations  of  a  better  civiliza- 
tion; they  have  diffused  the  light  of  a  higher  cul- 
ture ;  they  have  helped  to  remove  the  bands  of  super- 
stition, to  dissipate  the  pall  of  ignorance,  to  bind 
up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the 
captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that 
are  bound,  and  to  publish  to  the  world  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord. 

In  their  endeavors  to  interpret  Christianity  they 
have  touched  individuals ;  and,  having  become  new 
creatures  in  Christ  Jesus  by  contact  with  him,  they 
have  helped  to  make  these  individuals  over  into 
new  creatures  through  the  transforming  power  of 
Jesus  Christ  working  in  and  through  them.  Into 
this  service  for  individuals  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
these  workers  of  the  kingdom  have  poured  their 
energies  without  stint,  and  mighty  is  the  result  of 
their  labors.     In  this  kind  of  service  lay  the  great 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE  85 

secret  of  their  success.  It  is  the  contact  of  life 
with  life  that  counts  most  in  the  working  out  of 
the  problem  of  human  betterment.  Humanity  is 
lifted  up  to  nobler  things  not  by  wholesale,  but  by 
individuals ;  not  by  the  mass,  but  by  the  unit. 

The  biographer  of  Alice  Freeman  Palmer  says 
of  her  service  for  others:  "There  was  in  her  a 
wastefulness  like  that  of  the  blossoming  tree.  It 
sometimes  disturbed  me,  and  for  it  I  occasionally 
took  her  to  task.  'Why  will  you,'  I  said,  'give  all 
this  time  to  speaking  before  uninstructed  audiences, 
to  discussions  in  endless  committees  with  people 
too  dull  to  know  whether  they  are  talking  to  the 
point,  and  to  anxious  interviews  with  tired  and 
tiresome  women?  You  would  exhaust  yourself 
less  in  writing  books  of  lasting  consequence.  At 
present  you  are  building  no  monument.  When  you 
are  gone  good  people  will  ask  who  you  were,  and 
nobody  will  be  able  to  say.'  But  I  always  received 
the  same  indifferent  answer:  'Well,  why  should 
they  say?  I  am  trying  to  make  girls  wiser  and 
happier.  Books  don't  help  much  toward  that. 
They  are  really  dead  things.  Why  should  I  make 
more  of  them  ?  It  is  people  that  count.  You  want 
to  put  yourself  into  people.  They  touch  other 
people,  these  others  still,  and  so  you  go  on  work- 
ing forever.'  " 

The  important  thing  is  lodged  in  service  in 
behalf  of  the  individual  and  with  the  individual. 
It  may  seem  insignificant,  but  it  is  really  moment- 
ous.   It  may  seem  like  a  waste,  but  it  is  an  invest- 


86  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

ment  that  yields  richest  returns.  It  may  seem  use- 
less, but  no  endeavor  is  useless  that  brings  Jesus 
Christ  into  the  lives  and  hearts  of  men  and  women. 
The  humblest  service  rendered  in  Christ's  name 
sanctifies  life  and  is  a  benediction  to  humankind. 

To  many  of  us  at  this  hour  the  dominant  con- 
ception of  service  is  that  related  to  the  missionary 
enterprise.  He  whom  we  honor  to-day,  and  in 
whose  presence  we  are  met,  has  been  a  missionary 
of  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ  for  half  a  century.  It 
is  natural,  therefore,  that  missions  should  have  a 
prominent  place  in  our  thought  at  this  time. 

The  missionary  is  held  in  high  esteem  wherever 
his  work  is  known.  The  idea  of  sacrifice  is  always 
associated  with  him.  He  is  looked  upon  as  one 
who  endures  hardship  as  a  good  soldier  of  the 
Cross.  He  is  on  the  fighting  line.  He  makes  up 
"the  thin  red  line  of  heroes"  that  is  bringing  the 
distant  peoples  into  subjection  to  Jesus  Christ.  No 
wonder  he  is  held  in  deep  affection  the  whole  world 
around.  The  late  Dr.  John  Watson  said  of  the  mis- 
sionaries :  "We  second-rate  fellows  here  at  home 
are  the  militia :  a  very  respectable  lot  of  hardwork- 
ing men,  but  just  militia.  They  are  the  fighting 
line.  Theirs  are  the  medals  with  the  bars.  They 
are  our  Victoria  Cross  men."  And  a  short  time  ago 
the  head  master  of  a  famous  boys'  school  in 
Massachusetts  declared:.  "I  have  much  to  do  with 
boys;  and  I  would  rather  have  one  of  my  boys 
become  a  foreign  missionary  than  President.  The 
work  of  missionaries  is  the  grandest  in  the  whole 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE  87 

world,  and  the  missionaries  are  the  heroes  of 
modern  times." 

Some  months  ago  a  banquet  was  given  in  New 
York  to  his  excellency  Viceroy  Tuan  Fang,  of 
China.  This  is  what  he  said  about  the  influence 
and  service  of  the  American  missionary  in  his 
country :  "We  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to 
the  part  taken  by  American  missionaries  in  pro- 
moting the  progress  of  the  Chinese  people.  They 
have  rendered  inestimable  service  to  China  by  the 
laborious  task  of  translating  into  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage the  religious  and  scientific  works  of  the  West. 
They  have  brought  the  light  of  Western  civilization 
into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  empire." 

These  words  of  high  commendation  can  easily 
be  multiplied.  No  one  apologizes  for  the  mission- 
ary. He  needs  no  apology,  any  more  than  Jesus 
Christ  does.  He  has  won  his  way  to  superlative 
words  of  approval  by  the  distinguished  services  he 
has  rendered  to  humanity  everywhere  in  the  name 
of  the  Master  of  men,  under  whose  great  commis- 
sion he  has  gone  forth  to  the  conquest  of  the  world. 

Twenty  years  ago  Bishop  Thoburn  appeared  at 
Wesleyan  University  and  made  an  appeal  in  behalf 
of  India.  He  wanted  some  young  men  from  the 
group  of  students  to  reinforce  the  heroic  band  that 
was  preaching  the  truth  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
people  of  that  distant  land.  The  opportunity  for 
service  of  the  highest  kind  was  presented,  but  there 
was  no  response.  The  Bishop,  whose  soul  was 
burning-  with  a  desire  for  the  salvation  of  India, 


88  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

turned  away  from  the  university  with  a  sad  heart 
as  he  said:  "I  have  not  found  as  yet  a  single  can- 
didate for  missionary  service  in  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity. India  wants  the  best.  I  fear  something 
is  lacking.  Why  do  they  not  respond  to  India's 
appeal  for  help?" 

Well,  things  have  changed  much  since  the  day 
of  that  appeal  to  which  no  response  was  given.  The 
inspiration  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  life  and  services 
has  been  irresistible.  It  has  gripped  the  con- 
sciences, fired  the  imagination,  and  quickened  the 
consecration  of  college  men  and  women  in  every 
land.  From  Wesleyan  University,  and  from  scores 
of  other  centers  of  higher  education,  many  men  and 
women  of  fine  ability,  of  deep  devotion,  of  rich  spir- 
itual life  have  gone  forth  as  messengers  of  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  In  this  glorious  company  Alle- 
gheny College  is  represented  by  a  splendid  band. 
From  these  halls  of  learning  James  M.  Thoburn 
went  to  India,  as  did  Henry  Mansell,  James  H. 
Messmore,  James  W.  Waugh,  and  William  F. 
Oldham.  Merriman  C.  Harris  went  to  Japan, 
Albert  L.  Long  to  Constantinople,  Wilbur  C. 
Swearer  to  Korea,  Laura  Temple  to  Mexico,  and 
others  inspired  by  the  same  motives  have  given 
themselves  to  mission  labors  in  other  fields.  And 
I  doubt  not  there  are  some  enrolled  among  the 
students  here  who  are  looking  forward  with  the 
rapture  of  happy  anticipation  to  work  for  Jesus 
Christ  in  distant  lands.  God  grant  that  there  may 
be   many!      Indeed,    all    should   give    response    to 


HIGH  IDEALS  FOR  HIGH  SERVICE  89 

Christ's  call  for  high  service,  having  yielded  them- 
selves to  the  sway  of  the  high  ideals  centering  in 
him.  For  Christ's  call  is  directed  to  all,  since  there 
is  something  for  everyone  to  do  in  the  great  enter- 
prise of  the  world's  betterment.  That  call  sounds 
in  the  ears  and  beats  against  the  hearts  of  the  young 
people  of  this  college  to-day.  God  wants  volunteers 
for  the  carrying  on  of  his  enterprise  of  redemption. 
Is  he  finding  any  among  the  students  of  Allegheny 
College  ? 

There  is  a  story  of  the  Scotch  Guards  and  the 
expedition  to  Ashanti.  The  Guards  were  called 
upon  to  engage  in  a  perilous  undertaking.  The 
colonel  frankly  told  his  men  that  not  many  of  them 
would  return  alive.  No  man  was  ordered  to  go. 
But  volunteers  were  called  for.  And  so  the  colonel 
said,  "Any  man  who  will  volunteer  will  step  one 
pace  to  the  front,"  and  then  he  turned  his  back  to 
them  so  as  not  to  embarrass  them  in  their  decision. 
After  a  moment  he  faced  the  line  again.  It  was 
without  a  break.  Anger  arose  in  his  heart,  and 
leaped  to  his  face.  "What,"  said  he  in  hot  wrath, 
"the  Scotch  Guards  and  not  a  volunteer !"  Where- 
upon a  soldier  stepped  from  the  ranks,  saluted  his 
commander,  and  said,  "Colonel,  the  whole  line  has 
stepped  forward."  That  was  the  spirit  of  conquest. 
That  is  the  spirit  we  need  to  take  this  world  for 
Jesus  Christ.  May  that  spirit  prevail  in  this  college 
from  whose  halls  so  many  royal  men  and  women 
have  already  gone  as  volunteers  in  the  army  of 
the  conquering  Christ! 


PART  II 

ADDRESSES  ON  THE  RELATION  OF  THE 
COLLEGE  TO  MISSIONS 


A.     THE  RELATION  OF  THE  COLLEGE  TO 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


9* 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  THE  COLLEGE  MAN  IN 
FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ACHIEVEMENT 

The  careful  student  of  the  history  of  missions  is 
deeply  impressed  with  the  uncommon  service  of  the 
college  to  this  great  cause.  Only  a  brief  survey 
can  here  be  attempted.     We  note : 

I.  The  college  has  been  the  birthplace  and  the 
nursery  of  foreign  missionary  movements.  Chris- 
tian societies  of  students  have  played  a  most  im- 
portant part  in  modern  church  history.  This  com- 
pany needs  only  to  be  reminded  of  the  Holy  Club 
of  Oxford,  and  to  contemplate  its  far-reaching  mis- 
sionary consequences.  John  Wesley,  the  leader  of 
that  club,  gave  us  the  phrase  which  has  become  the 
missionary  platform  of  the  Church — "The  world 
is  my  parish."  The  "haystack  prayer  meeting"  was 
held  by  a  group  of  Williams  College  students,  com- 
posed of  Samuel  J.  Mills,  James  Richards,  Francis 
L.  Robbins,  and  By  ram  Green.  They  wrought  a 
revolution  in  the  religious  life  of  the  college  and 
developed  a  missionary  spirit  which  brought  into 
existence  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
the  first  organized  foreign  missionary  society  in 
America.  This  "haystack  prayer  meeting"  also 
originated  a  missionary  movement,  pronounced  by 
Dr.  McCosh  the  most  remarkable  since  Pentecost. 

93 


94  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Mills  went  from  Williams  to  Andover,  where  his 
zeal  influenced  not  only  his  former  classmates  at 
Williams,  but  also  graduates  of  Yale,  Harvard, 
Brown,  and  Union. 

In  1898  a  band  of  five  Yale  students  devoted  a 
year  to  work  among  young  people's  societies,  visit- 
ing seventy  cities.  One  of  these  was  John  Law- 
rence Thurston  of  Yale  ('98),  who  later  went  to 
China  and  became  the  founder  of  the  Changsha 
Mission.  Brownell  Gage  of  Yale  ('98)  and  his 
wife  went  out  in  1904,  and  later  Warren  B.  Sea- 
bury  of  '00,  Edward  H.  Hume  of  '97,  and  William 
J.  Hart  of  '05.  They  have  a  medical  mission  with 
dispensary  and  hospital,  and  a  general  school  with 
thirty  pupils.  All  these  are  but  types  of  work  which 
has  from  time  to  time  been  projected  by  college 
bands  and  college  graduates. 

About  eighteen  years  ago  in  Japan  two  student 
bands  formed,  in  extreme  parts  of  the  empire — one 
at  Sapporo  Agricultural  College,  the  other  at  a 
boys'  school  in  Kumamoto.  The  former  developed 
into  a  church;  and  a  world  observer  has  said  that 
the  city  of  Sapporo  is  more  thoroughly  permeated 
with  Christianity  than  any  other  city  he  saw  in 
Asia.  The  Kumamoto  band  entered  Doshisha, 
then  recently  founded  by  Joseph  Neesima,  an  Am- 
herst graduate  and  the  missionary  apostle  of  Japan, 
and  by  the  splendid  scholarship  of  its  members 
established  Christianity  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Japanese.  That  band  furnished,  or  inspired,  those 
Congregational  ministers  who  were  responsible  for 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS     95 

the  remarkable  growth  of  that  denomination  in 
Japan.  The  names  of  some  of  the  members  will 
shine  like  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  galaxy 
of  illustrious  names  which  will  be  celebrated  by 
the  future  historians  of  early  Christianity  in  the 
Sunrise  Kingdom.  Need  I  recount  the  story  of 
the  Cambridge  band  whose  members  have  played 
so  important  a  part  in  the  work  of  the  great  China 
Inland  Mission,  projected  by  J.  Hudson  Taylor? 
Five  of  the  seven  members — C.  T.  Studd,  W.  W. 
Cassels,  Stanley  P.  Smith,  Arthur  Turner,  and 
Montague  Beauchamp — were  college  men. 

I  need  only  mention  the  work  of  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement,  which  for  more  than  fifteen 
years  has  been  instructing  Christian  students  con- 
cerning the  world-wide  nature  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  its  progress,  condition,  needs,  opportunities, 
problems,  resources,  and  claims.  Up  to  January 
1,  1908,  3,500  volunteers,  recruited  from  the  stu- 
dent bodies,  had  actually  sailed  for  the  foreign  field ; 
an  even  thousand  of  these  having  sailed  during  the 
past  four  years.  In  the  total  not  less  than  fifty 
denominations  are  represented — 826  went  to  China, 
624  to  India,  313  to  Africa,  275  to  Japan,  167  to 
South  America,  and  about  twenty  different  foreign 
countries  in  all  were  supplied.  The  colleges  have 
led  in  the  scientific  study  of  Christian  missions,  the 
number  of  students  in  the  Mission  Study  Classes  in 
1907-08  being  23,495.  For  many  years  the  colleges 
and  seminaries  have  given  annually  from  $30,000 
to  $40,000  to  foreign  missions ;  and  in  the  year  1908 


96  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

the  reports  show  that  twenty-five  thousand  differ- 
ent students  and  professors  in  these  institutions  con- 
tributed $116,712.  Seventy  institutions  each  gave 
$300  or  more.  Mr.  John  R.  Mott,  the  inspirer  of 
this  movement  and  a  genius  in  the  organization 
and  propagation  of  far-reaching  missionary  move- 
ments, was  trained  in  Upper  Iowa  University,  later 
graduated  from  Cornell  University;  and  a  com- 
petent authority  states  that  every  member  of  the 
large  staff  associated  with  Mr.  Mott  in  the  mani- 
fold agencies  of  the  Volunteer  Movement  is  a  college 
man. 

In  June,  1904,  twenty-six  members  of  Harvard 
University,  under  the  inspiration  received  at  the 
Toronto  Student  Volunteer  Convention,  formed  a 
Harvard  Mission  Band.  That  year  three  Harvard 
men  went  to  foreign  posts — one  to  teach  English 
in  the  Canton  Christian  College,  China;  another 
became  a  minister  and  teacher  at  Hankow,  China; 
and  the  third  went  to  serve  as  secretary  for  the 
college  Christian  Association  in  India.  In  the  suc- 
ceeding years  more  than  thirty  Harvard  men  have 
gone  into  the  foreign  field.  And  on  February  12, 
1909,  this  Harvard  Association  decided  to  establish 
a  medical  school  in  China  which  should  bring  within 
the  reach  of  young  men  in  the  Celestial  Empire  the 
American  ideals  of  medical  service. 

The  University  of  Pennsylvania  has  an  organiza- 
tion which  maintains  strong  university  services  and 
Bible  study  classes ;  and  shows  its  interest  in  home 
missions  by  conducting  a  modern  university  settle- 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS     97 

ment  in  Philadelphia,  and  a  summer  camp  for  boys 
across  the  river.  Not  only  have  they  sent  their 
representatives  to  the  foreign  fields,  but  they  main- 
tain a  medical  school  in  China.  It  was  founded  by 
Dr.  J.  C.  McCracken,  who,  during  his  career  at  the 
university,  was  the  holder  of  the  world's  record  for 
the  "hammer-throw,"  of  the  intercollegiate  record 
for  the  "shot-put,"  captain  of  the  track  team,  guard 
and  full-back  on  the  football  team,  president  of  the 
Christian  Association,  president  of  his  class  for 
four  years ;  and  who,  after  graduation,  was  for  two 
years  in  charge  of  the  student  Christian  work  at 
Columbia  University. 

Other  institutions  have  maintained  similar  mis- 
sions and  organizations :  Northwestern  University 
students  are  now  supporting  a  chair  in  the  Anglo- 
Chinese  College  at  Singapore;  Cornell  College  has 
for  years  supported  one  of  its  graduates  who  is  now 
principal  of  a  boys'  school  in  India.  Careful  exam- 
ination reveals  the  fact  that  not  a  single  one  of  our 
Methodist  institutions  is  without  its  honorable 
record,  and  that  our  classical  academies — such  as 
Cazenovia,  Wilbraham,  Genesee  Wesleyan,  and  Ep- 
worth — have  their  honor  roll  of  devoted  mis- 
sionaries. 

II.  The  college  man  has  been  the  typical  foreign 
missionary  leader: 

1.  Because  he,  of  all  men,  has  the  widest  vision 
and  the  firmest  grasp  of  the  far-reaching  world 
principles  revealed  in  the  Bible  and  embodied  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.    Moses,  the  Jewish  lawgiver, 


98  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

the  founder  of  the  people  who  were  the  early  mis- 
sionaries of  a  theistic  religion,  was  trained  in  the 
best  schools  of  Egypt.  Paul,  the  central  human 
figure  of  the  New  Testament,  was  a  student  in 
Gamaliel's  school.  Strip  the  Pauline  theology  of 
its  Jewish  and  local  elements,  and  you  have  left  the 
greatest  and  most  permanent  portions  of  the 
apostle's  work.  His  "plan  of  the  ages,"  his  grasp 
of  the  social  organism  contemplated  in  Christianity, 
as  set  forth  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  chapters 
of  First  Corinthians,  his  conception  of  the  place 
and  possibilities  of  man  in  the  Christian  system,  as 
set  forth  in  Ephesians,  have  never  been  surpassed 
for  the  sweep  of  their  thought  and  the  reach  of  their 
power. 

Martin  Luther,  the  commanding  figure  in  the 
Reformation,  which  was  really  one  of  the  great 
missionary  movements  of  Europe,  was  a  graduate 
of  Erfurt.  Out  of  that  Reformation  came  the  uni- 
versities of  Konigsberg,  Jena,  Halle,  five  univer- 
sities in  France,  the  Universities  of  Glasgow,  Saint 
Andrews,  and  Aberdeen  in  Scotland,  and  the 
modern  colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  with 
their  great  service  to  foreign  missions.  Competent 
authority  also  credits  Luther  with  being  the  chief 
influence  in  the  foundation  of  the  modern  public 
school  systems. 

Count  Zinzendorf,  the  famous  Moravian  mis- 
sionary who  so  profoundly  influenced  John  Wesley, 
was  trained  at  the  Universities  of  Halle  and  Wit- 
tenberg, and  organized  at  Halle  a  missionary  society 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS     99 

known  as  "The  Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard 
Seed." 

Raymond  Lull,  the  famous  missionary  to  the 
Mohammedans,  called  the  "Henry  Martyn  of  the 
Middle  Ages,"  was  a  court  poet,  a  skilled  musician; 
was  trained  in  the  best  schools  of  his  time ;  and  was 
one  of  the  gayest  knights  at  the  banquets  of  James 
II  before  he  became  the  astute  scholastic  philoso- 
pher and  the  ardent  foreign  missionary. 

Among  the  great  leaders  on  the  foreign  mission 
field,  perhaps  no  one  has  accomplished  a  greater 
work  than  the  royal  man  in  whose  honor  this  cele- 
bration is  conducted.  His  open-minded  attitude 
toward  the  historical  study  of  the  Bible  and  toward 
new  problems  of  critical  investigation  has  been  a 
delight  to  scholars.  He  has  been  a  master  of  men, 
a  great  administrator,  the  inspirer  of  missionary 
enthusiasm,  the  creator  (directly  and  indirectly)  of 
a  missionary  literature,  the  honest  and  efficient  dis- 
penser of  millions  of  dollars  of  missionary  money; 
but  he  will,  perhaps,  be  longest  remembered  and 
most  highly  valued  for  that  quality  of  prophetic 
vision  which  belonged  to  the  Old  Testament 
prophets  and  which  was  preeminently  the  quality 
of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  Bishop  James 
M.  Thoburn  had  vision  without  being  a  visionary. 
He  has  been  our  seer,  who,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  man  we  have  had,  has  been  able  to  estimate 
forces,  to  see  strategic  situations,  and  to  formulate 
century-reaching  policies.  If  Allegheny  College 
had  done  nothing  more  than  give  the  world  and  the 


ioo  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Church  James  M.  Thoburn,  she  would  have  justified 
her  existence  and  rendered  value  received  for  the 
money  which  has  been  bestowed  upon  her. 

2.  Because  the  attitude  of  mind  and  heart  be- 
gotten by  the  college  has  been  conducive  to  leader- 
ship. Modern  culture  has  emphasized  the  spirit  of 
investigation.  The  student  in  a  chemical  laboratory 
rejoices  when  he  finds  that  a  certain  reaction  has 
produced  a  wholly  unexpected  result.  If  he  dis- 
covers a  new  or  a  novel  fact  compelling  the  recon- 
struction of  a  theory,  he  is  a  hero.  He  learns  to 
show  the  keenest  interest  in  new  discoveries  and 
in  the  investigation  of  new  facts.  This  has  made 
the  college  man  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  new  prob- 
lems and  conditions  of  the  foreign  fields.  He 
readily  works  up  old  principles  into  new  forms  and 
perceives  how  great  and  vital  fundamentals  can 
persist  through  manifold  changes  and  adaptations. 
Hence,  the  college  man  has  been  the  foremost  leader 
in  that  quiet  transformation  which  has  wholly 
changed  our  point  of  view  in  foreign  mission  work 
within  a  generation  or  two.  Formerly  we  sent  mis- 
sionaries to  the  heathen  because  they  were  without 
God,  children  of  Satan,  utterly  lost  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  historic  Christ.  Now,  under  the 
leadership  of  such  college  men  as  Charles  Cuth- 
bert  Hall,  we  have  come  to  see  that  all  the  heathen 
systems  are  the  sincere  attempts  of  men  groping 
after  the  light,  and  we  base  our  missionary  appeals 
on  the  principle  of  adding  more  light  to  the  scanty 
light  they  already  have. 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  101 

3.  Then  the  college  man  has  been  quick  to 
recognize  a  sense  of  social  obligation.  He  realizes 
that  he  is  "blessed  that  he  may  be  a  blessing." 
Oberlin  College  early  sent  its  first  graduates  as 
ministers  and  teachers  to  found  like  colleges  in  the 
West.  Olivet  and  Benzonia  in  Michigan,  and 
Tabor  in  Iowa,  thus  sprang  into  existence.  Simi- 
larly, Eastern  college  men  founded  Iowa  and  Beloit 
Colleges.  Moreover,  the  sense  of  obligation  for 
home  and  foreign  missions  has  coexisted  in  our 
college  communities.  This  is  the  real  spirit  of  the 
Christ  and  the  New  Testament.  A  thrilling  story, 
that  of  John  P.  Shipherd  and  Philo  P.  Stewart 
meeting  at  Elyria,  Ohio,  in  1832,  to  decide  on  some 
definite  line  of  effort  which  should  produce  the 
maximum  spiritual  benefit  to  a  perishing  world. 
Months  of  earnest  thought  and  discussion,  fervent 
petition  and  longing  for  heavenly  illumination ;  then 
Mr.  Shipherd  saw,  as  if  in  a  vision,  the  outline  of 
a  great  undertaking  so  complete  that  he  was  wont 
to  refer  to  it  as  "the  pattern  shown  him  in  the 
mount."  A  tract  of  land  secured ;  a  colony  planted ; 
the  central  and  most  important  thing  in  the  colony, 
a  school  to  train  teachers  and  other  Christian  toilers 
for  the  boundless  and  most  desolate  fields  of  the 
West.  This  school  becomes  Oberlin  College.  The 
first  catalogue  says :  "Its  grand  object  is  the  diffu- 
sion of  useful  science,  sound  morality,  and  pure 
religion  among  the  growing  multitudes  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley.  It  aims  also  at  bearing  an  impor- 
tant part  in  extending  these  blessings  to  the  desti- 


102  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

tute  millions  which  overspread  the  earth."  What 
was  the  outcome?  The  Western  Reserve — the 
chief  Congregational  stronghold  of  New  England 
for  sixty  years — found  its  pastors  and  pulpit 
supplies  at  Oberlin.  Some  ten  or  fifteen  Con- 
gregational colleges  farther  west,  with  the  churches, 
schools,  and  colleges  of  the  American  Missionary 
Association,  owe  far  more  to  Oberlin  than  to 
any  other  institution.  In  1836  Hiram  Wilson 
graduated.  He  proceeded  to  Upper  Canada  to 
commence  work  among  twenty  thousand  slaves 
who  had  fled  from  slavery  to  that  place  of 
refuge.  Finding  them  in  deepest  poverty  and  igno- 
rance, lapsing  into  vileness  and  utter  depravity,  he 
devoted  his  whole  life  to  Christianizing  and  edu- 
cating them.  At  the  end  of  two  years  fourteen 
teachers  from  Oberlin  were  assisting  him,  at  an 
actual  cost  of  $1,000.  More  than  twenty  men  and 
women  toiled  through  a  period  of  sixteen  years 
with  the  Indians  and  settlers  in  the  then  remote 
regions  of  Minnesota  and  the  Northwest.  A  com- 
petent authority  asserts  that  by  i860  Oberlin  had 
contributed  directly  and  indirectly  $100,000  to  the 
American  Missionary  Association  and  that  nine 
tenths  of  all  its  missionaries  had  been  supplied  by 
this  single  institution.  In  1862  the  college  had  39 
students  in  Jamaica,  29  in  West  Africa,  25  among 
the  Indians  in  the  Northwest;  while  of  home  mis-, 
sionaries  there  were  24  in  Michigan,  18  in  Illinois, 
8  in  Kansas,  and  8  in  the  Southern  States.  In  1881 
an  Oberlin  band  of  seven  went  out  to  found  the 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS   103 

Shansi  China  Mission.  The  total  record  to  date 
shows  over  250  foreign  missionaries,  more  than  600 
who  have  ministered  to  Indians,  Mountain  Whites, 
slaves,  and  others  in  this  country,  and  other  home 
missionaries  and  settlement  workers,  which  bring 
the  total  contribution  of  this  single  institution  to 
the  missionary  force  up  to  over  one  thousand. 

In  1835  the  Missionary  Lyceum  of  Wesleyan 
University  (Middletown,  Connecticut)  debated  the 
question,  "What  is  the  most  promising  field  for  a 
foreign  mission  of  our  Church?"  China  was 
strongly  advocated,  and  as  a  result  of  the  debate  a 
committee  was  formed  to  prepare  an  appeal  for 
opening  a  mission  in  that  land.  This  appeal  was 
published  in  The  Christian  Advocate  and  $1,450  was 
raised  for  the  purpose.  Judson  Dwight  Collins, 
graduated  from  Michigan  University  in  its  first 
class,  offered  himself  for  China.  President  Wilbur 
Fisk  advocated  a  mission  in  China  in  a  notable 
address  before  the  university  in  1846;  China  was 
placed  on  the  list  of  Methodist  Episcopal  missions 
the  same  year,  and  Judson  Dwight  Collins  and 
Moses  C.  White  (of  Wesleyan  University  and 
Yale)  were  accepted  as  the  first  missionaries  of 
our  Church.  Since  then  old  Wesleyan  has  a  long 
missionary  roll  of  honor. 

Now,  what  is  true  of  Oberlin  and  Wesleyan  can 
be  shown  to  be  true  in  greater  or  less  measure 
of  almost  all  of  our  schools  and  colleges,  par- 
ticularly of  those  operated  under  Christian  au- 
spices.     Northwestern    University    has    three    of 


104  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

its  graduates  in  Africa,  thirty  in  China,  twenty- 
three  in  India,  nine  in  Japan,  three  in  Persia, 
eleven  in  South  America,  and  some  scattered 
in  other  fields.  Among  these  are  some  of  the 
most  conspicuous  leaders  on  the  field.  Ohio 
Wesleyan  has  sent  over  150  missionaries  to  the 
foreign  field;  among  them,  such  conspicuously 
useful  men  as  Nathan  J.  Plumb,  Hiram  H.  Lowry, 
George  D.  Lowry,  B.  T.  Badley,  W.  N.  Brewster, 
A.  E.  Chenoweth,  George  R.  Davis,  Charles  W. 
Drees,  I.  H.  La  Fetra,  W.  A.  Mansell,  W.  P.  Mc- 
Laughlin, L.  W.  Pilcher,  N.  L.  Rockey,  Nathan 
Sites,  T.  J.  Scott,  and  J.  H.  Worley ;  while  DePauw 
has  furnished  forty-five  foreign  missionaries,  scat- 
tered through  fourteen  different  countries,  among 
them,  Thomas  B.  Wood,  J.  H.  Pyke,  Levi  B.  Sal- 
mans, and  Edward  B.  T.  Spencer.  Time  fails  us 
to  mention  scores  of  others  from  various  colleges — 
like  F.  D.  Gamewell,  hero  of  the  siege  of  Peking,  who 
is  college-trained  and  who  has  degrees  from  four 
different  universities;  Isaac  W.  Wiley,  beloved 
Bishop,  graduate  of  University  of  New  York;  R. 
S.  Maclay  of  Dickinson;  and  James  Simester  of 
Baldwin  University. 

4.  Again,  the  training  of  the  college  has  fitted 
men  for  leadership  because  it  has  developed  the 
power  to  see  things  as  they  are  and  to  do  things 
as  they  ought  to  be  done;  inspired  the  statesman- 
ship which  enables  men  to  form  policies  commend- 
ing themselves  to  the  judgment  of  thinking  men; 
and  cultivated  the  ability  to  create  that  enthusiasm 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS    105 

which  disposes  large  companies  of  men  to  follow 
the  chief.  These  are  the  qualities  of  leadership. 
Not  only  has  the  college  cultivated  them  in  a  pre- 
eminent degree,  but  it  has  attracted  to  its  halls  in 
all  ages  the  men  who  possess  these  elements  as 
native  qualities,  just  because  it  furnished  the  counter- 
part of  training  which  such  men  felt  they  needed. 
Call  the  roll  of  our  missionary  bishops :  Thoburn  of 
Allegheny,  Hartzell  of  Illinois  Wesleyan,  Warne 
of  Albert  College  and  Garrett  Biblical  Institute, 
Scott  of  our  own  Walden  and  Clark  Universities, 
Oldham  of  Allegheny,  Robinson  of  academic  train- 
ing and  then  of  Drew,  Harris,  educated  at  Scio  and 
Allegheny,  E.  W.  Parker  of  New  Hampshire  Bib- 
lical Institute.  The  only  non-college  man  in  the 
list  is  William  Taylor,  and  he  was  the  heroic  genius 
of  a  flaming  evangelism,  raised  up  for  a  unique 
work.  Add  our  two  General  Superintendents  on 
the  foreign  field — Lewis  of  Cornell  College  and 
Bashford  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  and  our 
own  Boston. 

Then  call  the  roll  of  the  missionary  secretaries : 
Leonard  of  Mount  Union  and  Stuntz  of  Evanston 
Academy  and  Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  J.  O.  Peck 
of  Amherst,  A.  J.  Palmer  of  Wesleyan  University, 
Charles  C.  McCabe  of  Ohio  Wesleyan,  H.  K. 
Carroll  of  Syracuse  University,  C.  H.  Fowler  of 
Genesee  College  and  Northwestern  University,  John 
M.  Reid  of  Genesee,  John  P.  Durbin  of  Miami  and 
Professor  in  Augusta,  R.  L.  Dashiell  of  Dickinson, 
Joseph  M.  Trimble  of  Ohio  University  (Athens), 


106  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

William  L.  Harris,  renowned  professor  in  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University,  Edward  R.  Ames  of  Ohio 
University,  Nathan  Bangs,  once  president  of  Wes- 
leyan; and  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  name  here  that 
princely  giver  and  strategist  of  missions,  John  F. 
Goucher,  graduate  of  Dickinson  College. 

But  behold  the  college  leader  on  the  field  itself. 
The  impression  sometimes  prevails  that  William 
Carey  was  an  ignorant  shoemaker,  but  the  records 
show  that  from  childhood  he  eagerly  devoured 
books,  especially  of  science,  history,  and  travel,  and 
that  notwithstanding  his  poverty  he  learned  Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew,  Dutch,  and  French,  and  acquired 
under  tutors  who  were  college  men  the  education 
which  fitted  him  for  his  work  so  that  at  one  time 
he  was  a  professor  in  Fort  William  College.  David 
Brainerd  was  not  a  college  graduate,  but  he  spent 
two  years  in  Yale,  when  an  unhappy  remark  in 
criticism  of  a  professor  led  to  his  expulsion.  He 
completed  his  education  under  a  clergyman  who 
was  a  college  graduate  and  who  piloted  him  through 
the  remainder  of  the  Yale  curriculum.  Henry 
Martyn,  the  apostle  of  India,  a  graduate  of  Saint 
Johns  College  (Cambridge),  received  the  highest 
academic  honor  of  "Senior  Wrangler,"  the  prize 
for  the  greatest  proficiency  in  mathematics,  and  the 
prize  for  the  best  Latin  composition.  Robert  Mor- 
rison, the  apostle  of  China,  was  trained  in  Hebrew 
and  theology  by  a  minister  at  Newcastle ;  then  spent 
nearly  two  years  in  the  Independent  Academy  at 
Hoxton,  and  later  two  years  in  the  mission  college 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS    107 

at  Gosport.  He  cooperated  with  Dr.  Milne  in 
founding  the  Anglo-Chinese  College  at  Malacca, 
since  moved  to  Hongkong.  It  is  a  noteworthy 
fact  that  these  missionaries,  in  addition  to  being 
trained  men  themselves,  considered  it  of  the  first 
importance  that  they  should  found  schools  and 
colleges  wherever  they  went.  Alexander  Duff 
entered  the  University  of  Saint  Andrews  and  studied 
under  the  great  Chalmers.  His  first  mission  to 
India  was  to  found  a  collegiate  institute  which 
should  confer  the  highest  education  on  native  youth. 
He  was  called  the  "Christian  Educator  of  Southern 
Asia."  When  in  1867  he  returned  to  his  native 
land  he  was  made  a  professor  in  the  college  of  the 
Free  Church. 

Adoniram  Judson,  a  graduate  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity and  of  Andover,  went  out  of  college  uncon- 
verted; but  while  groping  his  way  at  Andover  he 
was  led  into  light  and  consecration  by  Mills,  Rich- 
ards, and  Hall,  of  "haystack  prayer  meeting"  fame. 
David  Livingstone  studied  Latin,  Greek,  and  botany 
until  he  had  obtained  a  good  preparatory  education. 
Working  as  a  spinner  in  the  summer  and  studying 
at  Glasgow  in  the  winter,  he  earned  a  degree  from 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  Glasgow. 
Alexander  Mackay  was  a  precocious  youth  who 
read  the  New  Testament  at  three  and  at  seven  read 
intelligently  Milton's  "Paradise  Lost,"  Gibbon's 
"Decline  and  Fall,"  and  similar  works.  His  father, 
a  scholarly  man,  carefully  trained  him  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  a  college  course,  and  brought  him  in 


io8  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

personal  touch  with  such  great  lights  as  Hugh 
Miller,  the  scientist,  and  Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 
who  were  frequent  visitors  at  the  manse.  Later  he 
spent  two  years  at  Free  Church  College  Training 
School  for  Teachers,  and  four  years  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh,  afterward  going  to  Germany  for 
still  further  study.  Saint  Marys  Hall  (Oxford) 
gave  us  Bishop  Hannington;  while  William  Butler 
studied  at  Hardwick  School  and  Didsbury  College. 
Thomas  Coke — whom  Bishop  Galloway  has  called 
"the  Foreign  Minister  of  Methodism" — was  an 
Oxford  graduate.  Keith  Falconer,  the  nobleman 
missionary,  was  a  Cambridge  man,  an  expert  in 
Hebrew,  Syriac,  and  Arabic,  hailed  as  in  the  front 
rank  of  scholarship  even  by  the  critics.  The  appeal 
of  the  young  Scottish  nobleman  led  three  students 
in  the  Reformed  Dutch  College  at  New  Brunswick, 
New  Jersey — Samuel  Zwemer,  James  Cantine,  and 
Philip  T.  Phelps — to  open  a  second  mission  in 
Arabia.  They  labored  seven  years  and  sold  over 
ten  thousand  copies  of  the  Scriptures  before  they 
made  their  first  convert,  but  nothing  daunted  they 
toiled  on  to  victory.  Valpy  French  was  a  Rugby 
boy,  educated  under  Thomas  Arnold,  and  later  at 
University  College,  Oxford.  He  was  the  first 
Bishop  of  Lahore  and  went  four  times  to  India, 
each  time  to  begin  new  missions.  He  was  the 
founder  and  the  principal  of  both  Saint  Johns 
College,  Agra,  and  the  Lahore  Divinity  School, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  of  our  missionaries  among 
the    Mohammedans.      John    Eliot,    the    celebrated 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS    109 

apostle  to  the  Indians,  educated  at  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  was  an  acute  grammarian  and  a 
specialist  in  philology.  James  Calvert  was  educated 
at  Malton  and  Hoxton  Academies  before  he  became 
the  apostle  to  the  Fiji  Islanders.  James  Gilmour 
was  a  Glasgow  man.  Reginald  Heber,  well  known 
as  the  author  of  the  hymn,  "From  Greenland's  Icy 
Mountains,"  was  a  distinguished  scholar  of  Oxford, 
the  winner  of  many  honors,  before  he  became  the 
loved  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  John  G.  Paton,  the 
apostle  to  the  New  Hebrides,  was  trained  in  the 
University  of  Glasgow. 

And  what  shall  I  more  say  of  Gell  of  Cambridge, 
for  forty  years  Bishop  of  Madras ;  Saumarez  Smith, 
fellow  of  Trinity,  now  Archbishop  of  Sydney; 
Cheetham  of  Christ's,  Bishop  of  Sierra  Leone; 
Speechly  of  Saint  Johns,  Bishop  of  Travancore; 
Batty,  fellow  of  Emanuel,  "Second  Wrangler,"  who 
went  to  India;  Shackell  of  Pembroke,  who  went 
to  Agra;  Roger  Clark  and  his  more  distinguished 
brother,  Robert,  who  went  to  Peshawur,  with 
Wigram  of  Trinity  College,  and  Long  of  Corpus 
Christi,  secretaries  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society — but  names  to  most  of  us,  and  yet  repre- 
senting the  contribution  of  the  college  in  missions 
of  which  most  of  us  have  never  heard?  It  is  not 
possible  to  mention  all  the  missionaries  now  in 
active  service,  but  such  names  as  that  of  Emil 
Leuring,  our  apostle  to  the  head-hunters  of  Borneo, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  scholars  of  his  time, 
thoroughly  trained  in  the  German  universities,  are 


no  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

the  guarantee  that  a  similar  showing  might  be  made 
in  an  extended  investigation  of  living  men. 

III.  The  college  man,  moreover,  has  been  the 
chief  factor  in  shaping  the  Christian  ideals  which 
have  conquered  the  heathen  world.  He  has  incar- 
nated the  finer  qualities  and  the  higher  aspirations 
of  the  Christian  character.  For  some  conception 
of  the  tremendous  influence  of  the  foreign  mission- 
ary, we  can  only  refer  you  to  such  a  source  as  the 
chapters  in  the  third  volume  of  that  monumental 
work  by  J.  S.  Dennis  on  "Missions  and  Social  Prog- 
ress," which  show  how  the  missionaries  have  pro- 
moted the  reconstruction  of  laws,  the  reform  of 
judicial  procedure ;  aided  in  the  renovation  and  the 
amelioration  of  administrative  methods;  elevated 
the  standard  of  government  service;  furthered 
proper  international  relations;  and  made  large  and 
unique  contributions  to  the  world's  store  of  knowl- 
edge. They  have  performed  tasks  requiring  gen- 
uine scholarship,  such  as  the  publication  of  hun- 
dreds of  volumes,  monumental  labors  in  lexicog- 
raphy, and  in  the  reduction  of  obscure  languages, 
which  existed  only  in  confused  spoken  idioms,  to 
written  forms;  in  the  creation  of  many  a  literature; 
and  they  have  made  important  contributions  to 
comparative  philology.  Moreover,  the  missionary 
has  proven  himself  an  explorer  and  a  geographer  of 
the  first  rank;  an  archaeological  discoverer;  a  stu- 
dent and  a  discoverer  in  biology,  geology,  botany, 
zoology;  a  scientific  physician,  making  medical  dis- 
coveries of  world-wide  significance;  and  withal,  a 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS   in 

most  important  factor  in  international  diplomacy 
and  in  political  movements  of  world  scope.  In  all 
these  achievements  the  college  man  has  been  the 
leader;  and  the  relative  importance  of  the  man  of 
academic  training,  indicated  before,  has  been  main- 
tained. 

And,  once  again,  the  college  man  has  been  and  is 
to  be  the  chief  leader  in  the  unifying  movement 
which  will  give  the  world  a  Protestantism  whose 
solidarity  is  as  great  as  the  political  solidarity  of 
Roman  Catholicism,  but  which  is  to  be  based  on 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  great  world-wide  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity  stated  by  Jesus  in  his  famous 
intercessory  prayer.  All  the  missionary  boards  are 
insisting  on  high  educational  qualifications  for  their 
candidates.  They  are  looking  to  the  colleges  almost 
exclusively  for  their  supply. 

The  hour  does  not  permit  a  similar  statement 
concerning  the  work  of  women  on  the  foreign  field. 
Owing  to  the  small  provision  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  women  in  an  earlier  day,  her  part  in  the 
great  work  was  somewhat  delayed.  Many  noble 
souls  have  gone  out  as  deaconesses,  primary  and 
grade  teachers,  matrons,  wives,  and  helpers  of  mis- 
sionaries, with  less  than  a  college  education;  but 
the  college  woman  has  also  her  record  of  high 
endeavor  and  of  great  leadership.  The  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  has  303  missionaries; 
of  these  11 1  are  graduates  of  colleges  and  univer- 
sities, 47  of  normal  schools,  12  others  of  both  college 
and  normal  school,  and  20  more  have  done  some 


112  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

college  work  though  they  did  not  remain  to  grad- 
uation. 

Who  can  speak  in  too  eloquent  terms  of  the  great 
work  of  Isabella  Thoburn,  trained  in  the  Wheeling 
(West  Virginia)  Female  College?  First  to  respond 
to  the  call  of  her  distinguished  brother  whom  we 
honor  to-day,  pioneer  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  Band,  undaunted  by  difficulties,  she 
saw  the  zenanas  open;  she  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  Lucknow  Woman's  College,  the  first  college  for 
women  in  all  Asia;  she  founded  the  Girls'  High 
School  at  Cawnpore;  she  aided  Mrs.  Lucy  Rider 
Meyer  in  founding  the  Chicago  Missionary  and 
Deaconess  Training  School ;  and  she  wrought  a 
work  which,  for  scope,  permanent  value,  states- 
manlike qualities,  and  future  significance,  is  worthy 
to  be  placed  alongside  the  work  of  any  great  mis- 
sionary leader  of  the  centuries.  Her  name  may  be 
appropriately  joined  with  that  of  the  noble  Bishop 
in  the  celebration  of  this  week. 

Associated  with  Miss  Thoburn  in  her  first  work 
was  Dr.  Clara  Swain,  of  precious  memory;  and 
one  of  the  trophies  of  her  ministry  was  Miss  Lil- 
avati  Singh,  trained  under  Miss  Thoburn  in  the 
Lucknow  College,  and  graduated  with  honors  from 
the  College  of  Allahabad  and  the  University  of 
Calcutta.  A  scholar,  an  executive  of  great  ability, 
perhaps  the  most  prominent  native  teacher  in  Indian 
educational  work,  it  is  a  sufficient  index  of  her 
standing  to  recall  that,  though  she  had  no  official 
connection    with    the    Young    Women's    Christian 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS    113 

Association,  that  body  selected  her  as  its  delegate  to 
represent  the  students  of  India  at  the  World's  Stu- 
dent Federation  of  Japan,  because  they  felt  that  no 
one  could  better  represent  the  educated  women  of 
India. 

It  is  said  that  the  Chinese  government  has  in- 
vested the  $10,000,000  paid  back  by  the  United 
States  from  the  Boxer  indemnity  funds,  and  is  to 
spend  the  interest  in  sending  carefully  chosen  young 
men  to  study  in  our  leading  American  universities. 
They  are  to  return  to  the  service  of  the  Chinese 
government.  Pity  it  is  that  we  have  no  Methodist 
university  of  international  reputation  which  will 
attract  these  young  men  as  will  the  names  of  Har- 
vard, Yale,  Johns  Hopkins,  and  Chicago.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  our  Northwestern,  our  Syracuse, 
our  Boston,  or  colleges  like  our  Ohio  Wesleyan 
or  our  Allegheny  may  not  be  overlooked,  and 
yet  in  these  other  institutions  the  great  major- 
ity of  these  Chinese  boys  will,  without  doubt,  find 
their  place.  It  ought  to  inspire  us  to  build  one  or 
two  universities  of  international  fame,  imbued  with 
the  spirit  and  the  Christian  ideals  for  which  Meth- 
odism has  stood.  Is  it  not  possible  for  us  to  appeal 
to  Bishop  Bashford  and  Bishop  Lewis — both  of 
them  ex-presidents  of  American  colleges — to  use 
their  utmost  endeavor  to  have  some  of  the  brightest 
young  men  in  our  Anglo-Chinese  Christian  schools 
selected  for  this  honor;  and,  failing  that,  may  we 
not  get  some  offset  by  selecting  a  dozen  or  more  of 
the  brightest  young  men  in  our  Chinese  Christian 


U4  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

schools,  who  shall  be  sent  to  this  country — perhaps 
partly  supported  by  the  Loan  Fund  of  the  Board  of 
Education — that  they  may  return  to  represent  in 
their  own  land  Christian  ideals  as  interpreted  by 
Methodism  ? 


II 

THE  STUDY  OF  MISSIONS  IN  OUR  COLLEGES 

Most  interesting,  both  from  the  theoretic  and 
practical  point  of  view,  is  the  question,  What  shall 
be  taught  in  our  colleges?  The  great  universities 
in  the  world  make  it  their  proud  boast  that  they 
cover  in  their  offered  courses  every  department  of 
human  learning.  This  may  be  carried  too  far.  In 
late  years  there  has  been  a  protest  against  the  over- 
multiplication  of  electives  in  some  of  our  American 
colleges.  Such  studies  may  readily  run  into  the 
class  denominated  "fads,  fancies,  and  foibles,"  and 
recognized  by  the  students  as  "soft  snaps." 

But  in  pleading  for  the  introduction  of  the  study 
of  missions  in  our  seminaries  and  colleges  we  are 
putting  forth  no  mere  visionary  scheme,  but  a  sub- 
ject of  vital  interest,  in  which  the  human  element 
relieves  the  investigation  from  the  dryness  and 
dreariness  of  purely  abstract  research.  It  has  been 
found  in  our  public  schools  that  the  best  way  to 
study  geography  is  in  connection  with  the  history 
of  the  countries;  and  collegiate  students  to-day  are 
approaching  psychology  along  physiological  lines. 
We  believe  that  missions  to-day  represent  such  im- 
portant and  vital  concerns  and  movements  that 
without  difficulty  their  study  will  engage  and  en- 
trance the  minds  of  students.    Through  that  study, 

iiS 


n6  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

too,  not  only  in  colleges  but  throughout  the  entire 
Church  of  Christ,  an  awakened  and  abiding  inter- 
est in  the  whole  problem  of  the  evangelization  of 
the  world  will  be  kindled.  Not  only  in  our  seats  of 
learning  should  study  classes  be  formed,  but  also 
in  connection  with  our  local  churches,  in  the  ad- 
vanced Sunday  school  classes,  and  in  the  circles  of 
the  Epworth  Leagues.  If  the  prosecution  of  such 
investigations  could  become  general,  not  only  would 
the  intelligence  and  the  conscience  of  large  masses 
of  Christians  be  informed  and  touched,  but  an  active 
propaganda,  in  men,  methods,  and  money,  would 
show  admirable  results. 

We  have  said  that  the  study  of  missions  is  no 
small  and  insignificant  department  of  human  knowl- 
edge. The  establishment  of  a  mission  is  not  simply 
the  planting  of  a  conventicle  on  some  foreign  shore, 
manned  by  a  few  narrow  sectarians  who  would 
propagate  an  alien  theology  in  an  uncongenial  soil. 
While  the  mission  comes  primarily  to  conduct  the 
propaganda  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  to  make 
known  the  truth  contained  in  the  Bible,  and  particu- 
larly in  the  New  Testament,  the  scope  of  its  inten- 
tion is  very  wide;  for  it  brings  to  backward  and 
uncivilized  nations  all  that  has  been  developed  in 
connection  with  the  gospel  and  as  the  outgrowth  of 
it.  This  means  that  the  missionary  is  not  simply 
an  evangelist  or  a  preacher,  but  that  he  introduces 
also  an  educational  system,  and  makes  a  way  for  all 
the  ministering  philanthropies  that  Christianity  has 
established. 


MISSION  STUDY  IN  OUR  COLLEGES       117 

Hence  the  medical  missionary,  with  his  dispensary, 
clinic,  and  hospital,  is  intimately  associated  with  the 
religious  leader,  as  is  also  the  corps  of  teachers  con- 
ducting a  seminary  or  college. 

The  inspiration  of  the  idea  of  missions  has  not 
adequately  seized  the  attention  of  many.  Numerous 
Christians  still  exist  who  have  not  opened  their 
eyes  to  perceive  the  magnificent  scope  and  tendency 
of  such  a  work  which  aims  at  the  unity  of  the  race, 
along  the  lines  of  the  only  unifying  principle,  that 
of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  can  bind  all 
men  and  all  nations  into  the  brotherhood  of  human- 
ity. It  is  in  vain  to  think  of  a  common  language,  or 
common  customs,  but  a  common  religion  is  not  a 
preposterous  speculation.  The  missionary  to-day 
has  but  one  motive,  and  that  is  of  brotherliness,  as 
he  goes,  not  speculating  so  much  upon  the  future 
of  his  heathen  fellow  mortal,  but  with  love  in  his 
heart,  and  wanting  him  to  become  possessor  of  the 
highest  and  best  things  that  humanity  has  achieved, 
in  religion,  education,  and  government.  He  comes 
to  bring  the  glad  word  of  the  evangel,  to  lift  his 
brother  up  to  the  level  of  his  high  prerogative.  In 
fact,  in  many  places,  as  in  India,  the  social  meaning 
of  Christianity  has  dawned  upon  millions  of  low- 
caste  and  no-caste  peoples,  who  are  flocking  to  the 
standard  of  the  cross  in  larger  numbers  than  they 
can  be,  at  present,  safely  taken  care  of  and  indoc- 
trinated. These  poor  and  downtrodden  peoples 
have  obtained  glimpses  of  the  possibilities  that  may 
be  theirs  through  the  emancipation  and  inspiration 


u8  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  Jesus  himself, 
in  accordance  with  his  own  declared  program,  is 
proclaiming  relief  to  the  captives,  recovery  of  sight 
to  the  blind,  the  setting  at  liberty  of  them  that  are 
bruised,  and  the  dawning  of  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord.  The  ferment  to-day  in  India  and  the 
democratic  movement  throughout  the  Orient  are 
direct  products  of  the  liberalizing  and  socializing 
action  of  the  gospel,  and  as  such  makes  its  appeal 
directly  to  the  students  of  sociology  and  national 
development.  It  is  said  that  our  solar  system,  along 
with  all  other  systems  in  our  visible  universe,  is 
moving  toward  some  mysterious,  far-off  point  in 
the  heavens.  The  meaning  of  this  movement  and 
its  probable  end  no  one  can  now  determine.  Such 
mysterious  and  wonderful  trends  have  their  counter- 
part in  the  currents  which  are  constantly  in  action 
in  the  human  race.  The  study  of  these  currents, 
not  only  for  one  contemplating  enlisting  as  a  mission- 
ary, but  for  anyone  who  anticipates  the  goal  of  hu- 
manity's growth  and  progress,  should  be  immensely 
absorbing.  It  is  true  that,  whatever  subject  of 
knowledge  one  may  undertake,  he  will  soon  find 
that  it  runs  out  speedily  into  almost  every  other 
knowable  subject  in  the  universe,  for  all  knowledge 
is  interconnected  and  intimately  interwoven.  It 
is  like  the  seamless  robe  which  Jesus  wore.  Con- 
sequently, it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  when  one 
begins  the  exploration  of  the  missionary  problem 
he  finds  himself,  almost  of  necessity,  looking  into 
the     history,     biography,     ethnology,     nationality, 


MISSION  STUDY  IN  OUR  COLLEGES       119 

sociology,  ethics,  philosophy,  international  law, 
government,  diplomacy,  .  journalism,  medicine, 
science,  and  literature.  He,  of  necessity,  enters 
into  the  study  of  religions,  comparatively,  in  order 
to  find  the  points  of  contact  and  departure  between 
them  and  Christianity.  In  this  way  the  mission- 
aries of  the  present  day  are  far  better  fitted  than 
those  of  a  former  era  to  present  the  gospel  method- 
ically and  intelligently  to  their  brethren  of  other 
faiths.  As  Jesus  said  that  he  came  not  to  destroy 
but  to  fulfill  the  law  of  Moses,  so  these  missionaries 
present  themselves,  in  their  first  advances,  not  as 
antagonists  to  the  teaching  of  Buddha,  Confucius, 
or  Mohammed,  but  as  those  who  would  supplement 
to  the  full  the  imperfect  by  the  perfect  and  entire. 
They  follow  the  diplomacy  of  Saint  Paul  on  Mars' 
Hill,  when  he  referred  complimentarily  to  the  evi- 
dent zeal  for  religion  in  the  Athenians,  shown  by 
the  multitude  of  statues  to  the  gods,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded with  his  declaration  and  exposition  of  the 
one  true  God,  who  had  made  his  revelation  in  Jesus. 
These  missionaries,  just  as  we  here  in  our  own 
country  are  applying  the  principles  of  Christ  to 
the  elucidation  and  solution  of  numerous  political 
and  sociological  problems,  can  take  these  same  prin- 
ciples and  bring  them  to  bear  upon  the  solving  of 
national  and  international  questions  on  the  other 
side  of  the  globe.  To  fit  men  for  such  broad  activ- 
ities and  operations  as  these  the  lecture  rooms  of 
our  colleges  must  of  necessity  furnish  adequate 
training.     Nowhere  else  can  it  be  had  so  well,  and 


120  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

nowhere  else  can  the  broad  views  and  relationships 
necessary  for  such  a  lifework  be  presented. 

In  our  Christian  colleges  also  the  world-wide 
view  of  humanity's  connections  can  be  so  elaborated 
from  the  professor's  chair  that  the  miserable  little 
provincialisms  which  still  survive,  and  which  would 
represent  the  home  field  as  a  sufficient  area  for 
evangelistic  enterprise,  will  give  place  to  a  plane- 
tary outlook.  Our  students  ought  never  to  go  out 
from  college  walls  feeling  that  Christianity  is  a 
faith  that  flourishes  best  in  some  pent-up  and  con- 
fined favorite  section,  or  that  it  should  be  isolated 
from  the  world  at  large.  They  ought  to  see  that  in 
truth  to-day  the  world  is  indeed  a  whispering 
gallery ;  that  there  are  no  longer  any  hermit  nations ; 
that  the  telegraph,  the  swift  ships,  the  mail  service, 
the  railway,  have  bound  all  peoples  into  one  family, 
and  that  no  longer  does  there  exist  any  definite  dis- 
tinction between  home  and  foreign  missions. 
Wherever  there  is  human  need,  wretchedness,  deg- 
radation, serfdom,  poverty,  superstition,  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  ignorance,  there,  in  that  spot  of 
earth,  arises  the  call  to  the  missionary  for  help. 
America,  for  a  long  while,  politically  kept  itself, 
according  to  the  injunction  of  Washington,  out  of 
entangling  alliances  with  other  nations ;  but  the 
time  came  when  it  could  no  longer  live  by  itself 
apart.  It  had  bound  itself  up  commercially  with 
every  other  civilized  people,  and  it  found  its  obliga- 
tion inescapable  as  a  recognized  world  power  to 
bear  its  part  of  the  white  man's  burden,  and  do 


MISSION  STUDY  IN  OUR  COLLEGES        121 

what  it  could  to  lift  up  into  light  and  freedom  and 
knowledge  the  undeveloped  tribes.  And  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  America  must  also  accept  its  share 
for  the  unification  of  the  world  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Christian  faith.  All  Christians  must  realize 
the  intrinsic  worth  of  other  men  under  whatever 
name  they  appear.  Americans  must  correct  the 
egotism  of  their  national  self-appreciation  enough 
to  recognize  the  merits  of  other  forms  of  govern- 
ment, and  the  claims  of  other  peoples  upon  them; 
and  American  Christians  must  break  away  from 
the  selfishness  of  trying  to  sequestrate  the  benefits 
of  the  gospel  for  themselves  alone,  and  hold  the 
precious  heritage  of  the  faith  as  a  trust  for  all  men 
unto  whom  it  has  not  yet  come. 

I  have  said  that  the  study  of  missions  ought  to 
be  anything  but  a  dry-as-dust  sort  of  elective.  It 
ought  to  be  filled  with  enthusiasms,  with  the  red 
blood  of  human  passion  and  struggle.  When  one 
thinks  of  the  ferment  going  on  among  the  Hindus 
in  India;  of  the  swift  forging  into  the  front  place 
of  the  foremost  nationalities  of  Japan;  of  the  ad- 
vance in  Korea  under  Japanese  tutelage;  of  the 
amazing  educational  and  industrial  revolution  in 
China  and  the  most  significant  governmental  re- 
forms there  instituted ;  of  the  partition  of  Africa 
among  European  powers,  and  the  plans  being  swiftly 
consummated  of  making  over  that  whole  continent 
into  an  area  of  civilization;  of  the  constitutional 
crises  which  have  brought  Russia,  Turkey,  and 
Persia  out   of   the  catalogue  of  absolutisms,   and 


122  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

given  the  people  a  voice  through  representative  gov- 
ernment; of  the  religious  crisis  in  France  which  has 
denationalized  the  Roman  Catholic  Church;  of  the 
open  door  in  Italy,  where  to-day  Protestantism  is 
finding  in  the  ancient  capital  a  strong  foothold  in 
the  very  seat  and  center  of  Romanism — when  one 
thinks  of  all  this  history  in  the  making,  how  can  it 
be  imagined  that  the  study  of  missions  should  be 
anything  but  replete  with  the  most  absorbing  facts' 
and  views  ?  One  wonders  how  any  college  can  think 
that  it  is  presenting  studies  of  the  largest  import 
unless  it  includes  such  a  course  in  its  curriculum. 
And  not  only  should  the  mind  of  the  student  travel 
abroad  to  find  fields  to  engage  his  keen  attention, 
but  right  here  at  home,  in  the  problems  centering 
about  the  life  of  our  great  cities,  and  raised  for  us 
by  the  incoming  tide  of  millions  of  immigrants,  it 
will  find  subjects  which  demand  the  closest  applica- 
tion of  thought  and  the  most  serious  tests  of  applied 
Christianity. 

For  all  students  in  our  colleges  and  in  our 
churches,  it  is  gratifying  to  say  that  a  literature 
unsurpassed  in  its  accuracy  and  happy  methods  of 
description  is  to  be  found  in  the  books,  magazines, 
reports,  maps,  and  pictures,  which  form  libraries  in 
themselves,  and  are  the  output  of  our  mission  and 
other  publishing  houses.  To  be  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  these  is  indeed  to  have  a  liberal  edu- 
cation. Naturally,  too,  the  study  of  these  will  lead 
to  acquaintance  with  the  great  biographies  of  mis- 
sionary heroes.     The  best  way  of  studying  the  his- 


MISSION  STUDY  IN  OUR  COLLEGES        123 

tory  of  any  nation  is  to  familiarize  oneself  with  the 
life  stories  of  its  great  statesmen,  whose  careers 
made  epochs  in  the  nation.  To  know  the  stories  of 
Carey,  Livingstone,  Mackay,  Taylor,  Thoburn, 
Hannington,  Patteson,  and  many  others,  is  to  know 
the  stirring  history  of  the  progress  of  missions  dur- 
ing the  last  century.  Such  study  as  this  will  be 
not  only  informing,  but  will  grip  the  mind  with  all 
the  intensity  that  the  most  masterly  fiction  possesses. 

Such  a  course  as  this  which  we  have  outlined, 
when  it  becomes  general  in  our  schools  and 
churches,  will  be  one  of  the  best  means  of  securing 
a  steady  and  adequate  financial  support  for  the  great 
work  of  Christianity.  That  work  is  not  something 
spasmodic  and  sporadic.  It  is  a  vast  and  tremen- 
dous campaign.  Few  realize  what  it  means  to  bring 
the  world  to  the  feet  of  Christ.  We  cannot  depend 
upon  sentiment  alone  or  enthusiasm  alone,  without 
a  solid  substratum  of  facts  and  knowledge  to  uphold 
and  prompt  it,  and  only  serious  and  patient  study 
can  give  us  such  a  substantial  foundation. 

Out  of  colleges,  and  out  of  our  churches  too,  as 
the  result  of  such  a  broadening  and  fertilizing  edu- 
cation, our  young  men  and  women  may  be  depended 
upon  to  feel  the  call  to  consecrate  their  lives  for 
the  salvation  of  their  less  favored  brothers  and 
sisters.  Already,  the  Lay  Movement  in  Missions 
and  the  Young  People's  Missionary  Movement  are 
showing  us  the  stirring  of  great  emotions  and  con- 
victions among  the  Christian  masses,  outside  the 
clergy  as  a  class.    Hundreds  of  our  best  and  bright- 


124  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

est  men  and  women  are  under  conviction  that  the 
best  investment  they  can  make  of  a  life  is  to  give 
it  to  Christ  as  a  missionary  offering,  and  hundreds 
of  hard-headed  and  practical  men  are  rising  to  the 
perception  of  the  dignity  and  grandeur  of  the  mis- 
sionary crusade,  and  are  determined  that  it  shall 
be  wisely  directed,  properly  officered,  and  efficiently 
financiered.  This  era  is  one  of  immense  hopeful- 
ness, and  our  colleges  can  cooperate  gloriously  and 
effectively  by  their  classroom  studies  and  lectures 
with  our  churches  and  our  missionary  societies  in 
hastening  forward  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  and 
the  final  victory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


Ill 

THE  WIDENING  FIELD  OF  OPPORTUNITY 

To  bring  out  clearly  the  widening  field  of  oppor- 
tunity .for  missionary  endeavor  let  us  glance  at 
some  of  the  events  that  have  culminated  during  the 
nineteenth  century,  which  less  than  a  decade  ago 
passed  into  history. 

A  century  ago  more  than  one  half,  nearly  two 
thirds,  of  the  whole  world  was  unknown  to  civilized 
people.  At  that  time  the  great  dominion  of  Canada 
to  the  northeast  was  settled  only  along  the  lower 
Saint  Lawrence  and  the  southeastern  border,  while 
the  interior  and  far  western  regions  were  absolutely 
unknown  to  white  men.  The  independence  of  the 
United  States  was  acknowledged  by  foreign  powers 
in  1787.  When  the  nineteenth  century  came  the  Re- 
public was  thirteen  years  old,  with  a  population  of 
five  millions  living  mainly  east  of  the  line  running 
along  the  crest  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  from 
Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  There  were  scattered 
and  isolated  settlements  west  of  the  Alleghanies 
and,  along  the  Ohio  valley,  and  there  were  French 
colonies  along  the  lower  Mississippi.  In  1762  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  comprising  all  the  present  ter- 
ritory of  the  United  States  west  of  the  Mississippi 
except  Texas,  the  territory  included  in  the  States 
of  Oregon  and  Washington,  and  the  areas  acquired 

125 


126  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

from  Mexico  since  1847,  was  ceded  to  Spain  by 
France.  In  1800  it  was  ceded  back  to  France,  and 
in  1803  it  was  sold  by  France  to  the  United  States 
for  a  consideration  of  60,000,000  francs.  When 
the  nineteenth  century  came  the  stars  and  stripes 
did  not  float  over  a  single  square  mile  between  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  coast.  Mexico  was  con- 
quered by  Spain  in  1521  and  held  until  182 1,  when 
Hidalgo  struck  the  first  blow  for  freedom.  But 
during  the  three  hundred  years  of  Spanish  tyranny 
and  robbery  not  half  the  territory  was  explored. 
South  America  was  conquered  by  Spain  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  but  the  interior  of  the  continent  was 
as  unknown  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  as  was  the  heart  of  Africa.  Turning  to 
the  eastern  hemisphere,  we  find  that  the  East  India 
Company  was  chartered  by  Queen  Elizabeth  in 
1600.  In  1798  Lord  Mornington  submitted  a  plan 
to  extend  British  rule  over  the  whole  peninsula. 
The  plan  thus  outlined  was  followed  in  the  main 
until  its  final  consummation  in  1877,  when  Queen 
Victoria  was  crowned  Empress  of  India.  At  that 
time  Arabia  and  Asia  Minor,  including  Palestine, 
was  held  by  the  Turks,  as  it  is  to-day,  and  northern 
and  eastern  Asia,  including  Thibet,  Turkestan, 
Mongolia,  Manchuria,  Siberia,  China,  Japan,  and 
Korea,  were  strange  lands  to  Europeans.  Africa 
was  almost  wholly  unexplored.  Europe  occupied 
territory  along  the  Mediterranean.  A  colony  of 
Dutch  and  Portuguese  had  been  founded  at  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  a  tract  of  country  on  the 


WIDENING  FIELD  OF  OPPORTUNITY      127 

west  coast  was  held  by  slave-stealers.  But  not  un- 
til the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
the  Dark  Continent  fully  explored.  Australia  was 
discovered  by  Dutch  mariners  in  1606,  and  other 
contiguous  islands  in  the  southern  seas  later  still. 
In  1769  Captain  Cook  explored  the  east  coast  of 
Australia,  but  the  whole  group  was  not  fully  ex- 
plored until  1873. 

It  may  be  said  that  with  the  close  of  the  old 
century  the  habitat  of  the  last  man  had  been  located. 
There  remain  only  for  the  explorer  the  north  pole 
and  the  south  pole.  Less  than  two  years  ago  Cap- 
tain Peary  planted  the  American  flag  within  two 
hundred  miles  of  the  north  pole,  and  within  the  last 
year  Captain  Shackleton  planted  the  Union  Jack 
at  a  point  about  one  hundred  miles  from  the  south 
pole.  As  Christians  we  are  not  particularly  inter- 
ested in  these  explorations,  for  the  reason  that 
human  beings  do  not  inhabit  those  polar  regions. 
Further  explorations  of  all  the  continents  and  the 
islands  are  being  pushed  forward.  There  are  eighty- 
three  geographical  societies,  with  a  membership  of 
fifty  thousand,  publishing  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  journals,  all  devoted  to  the  further  explora- 
tion of  the  surface  of  the  globe. 

The  whole  world  field  is  not  only  known  but  is 
open  to  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
Not  only  do  we  have  an  explored  world,  but  facil- 
ities for  reaching  every  part  of  it  in  a  comparatively 
brief  space  of  time.  A  century  ago  there  was  not 
a  steamboat  on  the  globe.     In  1803  Robert  Fulton 


128  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

launched  a  small  steamship  upon  the  river  Seine, 
but  it  proved  to  be  a  failure  and  it  was  laughed  at 
by  the  wise  men  of  Paris.  In  1807  he  launched  a 
steamer  on  the  lower  Hudson  that  made  its  first 
journey  to  Albany,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
at  a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour.  But  his  invention 
revolutionized  travel  by  land  and  sea.  A  century 
ago  a  voyage  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  meant 
six  weeks  more  or  less;  from  London  to  Bombay 
four  months ;  from  London  to  Calcutta  five  months. 
Carey  went  from  Dover,  England,  to  Calcutta  in 
1793  and  was  five  months  at  sea.  Robert  Morrison 
was  seven  months  from  England  to  Canton  in  1807. 
Judson  was  eleven  months  from  Salem,  Massachu- 
setts, to  Calcutta  in  1812.  Moffat  went  from  Eng- 
land to  Cape  Town  in  181 7  and  was  three  months 
on  the  way.  Stephen  L.  Baldwin  went  from  New 
York  to  Foochow  in  1857  and  was  147  days  at  sea. 
James  M.  Thoburn  went  from  Boston  to  Calcutta 
in  1859  and  was  120  days  at  sea.  Now  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool  the  distance  can  be  made  in  less 
than  five  days.  Recently  the  Mauretania  crossed 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  four  days,  seventeen  hours, 
and  six  minutes. 

When  the  old  century  came  there  were  no  rail- 
roads. The  first  railroad  was  constructed  in  Eng- 
land in  1814  and  was  used  for  transporting  freight, 
making  a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour.  The  first 
passenger  railroad  opened  on  the  planet  was  in 
1830  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  Now 
there  are  about  600,000  miles  of  railroad,  or  enough 


WIDENING  FIELD  OF  OPPORTUNITY      129 

to  belt  the  globe  twenty-four  times.  The  United 
States  has  about  half  of  the  world's  railroad  mile- 
age, or  enough  to  belt  the  globe  twelve  times.  Rail- 
roads are  being  rapidly  extended  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  Even  the  Dark  Continent  is  being  well 
supplied.  The  Cape  to  Cairo  line,  the  dream  of 
Cecil  Rhodes,  will  probably  be  completed  within  a 
decade.  With  these  facilities  for  travel  by  land 
and  sea  it  is  estimated  that  the  remotest  pagan  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth  may  be  reached  from  some 
Christian  community  within  the  limit  of  about  thirty 
days.  So  we  have  not  only  an  explored  world  but 
facilities  for  reaching  every  part  of  it  in  a  very  brief 
space  of  time. 

Another  widening  opportunity  is  seen  in  the 
facilities  now  at  hand  for  the  distribution  of  informa- 
tion. When  the  old  century  dawned  there  was  not 
a  free  public  school  system  in  the  world,  and  it  was 
during  that  century  that  the  universities,  colleges, 
and  seminaries  of  the  world  were  largely  founded. 
At  that  time  the  only  printing  press  was  worked 
by  hand  and  could  turn  off  only  one  hundred  im- 
pressions an  hour.  Now  we  have  the  steam-power 
press  that  turns  off  100,000  impressions  an  hour. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  good  literature  was 
so  abundant  as  now.  The  number  of  printing  plants 
in  foreign  mission  fields  approximates  two  hundred, 
turning  out  more  than  12,000,000  copies  of  various 
publications  annually.  A  century  ago  the  Bible 
was  printed  in  sixty-six  languages  and  dialects, 
available  to  150,000,000  of  people.     Now  there  are 


130  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

in  existence  five  hundred  and  four  different  trans- 
lations, accessible  to  1,200,000,000  of  people. 
About  300,000,000  remain  to  be  supplied,  and  it 
is  probable  that  well  within  the  first  half  of  the 
present  century  the  Bible  will  be  published  in  all  the 
languages  of  earth. 

The  facilities  for  distributing  information  through 
the  international  postal  system  are  simply  marvelous. 
More  than  one  million  people  are  constantly  em- 
ployed in  handling  the  mails  of  the  world.  But  we 
do  not  wait  in  these  times  for  the  distribution  of 
information  through  the  post  office  facilities.  Elec- 
tricity is  the  agency  employed  now.  The  first  tele- 
graph line  on  the  planet  was  opened  between  Balti- 
more and  Washington  city  in  1843,  and  very 
appropriately  the  first  message  passing  over  it  was, 
"What  hath  God  wrought!"  Now  the  total  mile- 
age of  telegraph  lines  is  estimated  at  1,200,000; 
the  total  mileage  of  single  wires  4,000,000,  over 
which  messages  amounting  to  1,000,000  pass  every 
twenty-four  hours.  There  are  1,750  submarine 
cables,  with  a  mileage  of  252,000,  carrying  mes- 
sages amounting  to  6,000,000  annually.  In  these 
days  information  is  sent  broadcast  throughout  the 
world  instantaneously.  On  July  4,  1903,  President 
Roosevelt  sent  the  first  cable  message  that  ever 
circled  the  globe.  Cable  connection  between  San 
Francisco  and  Hongkong  was  completed.  Pres- 
ident Roosevelt  was  at  his  summer  home  at  Sag- 
amore Hill,  on  Long  Island.  The  message  was 
twelve  minutes  in  making  its  journey,  but  it  was 


WIDENING  FIELD  OF  OPPORTUNITY      131 

repeated  on  the  way  nineteen  times.  Had  there 
been  a  complete  circuit  so  that  no  repetition  had 
been  necessary  the  message  would  have  returned 
to  Sagamore  Hill  within  the  limit  of  the  minute  of 
its  departure.  And  now  we  have  the  wireless,  and 
atmosphere  takes  the  place  of  wire. 

Another  indication  of  our  widening  opportunity 
is  found  in  the  cooperation  that  is  now  a  reality 
between  the  various  Protestant  denominations  of 
the  world.  A  half  century  ago  these  different  de- 
nominations were  so  many  hostile  camps.  Now  the 
one  great  purpose  is  cooperation.  The  Congress  of 
Protestant  Denominations,  which  met  recently  in 
Philadelphia,  was  a  sign  of  the  times.  Some  forty 
different  denominations  were  represented,  and  there 
was  not  a  note  of  discord  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  based  upon  doctrinal  differences.  For  more 
than  a  dozen  years  secretaries  and  representatives 
of  the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada  have  held  annual  sessions  for 
the  purpose  of  studying  the  whole  missionary  sit- 
uation and  planning  for  cooperation  in  all  parts  of 
the  world.  Protestantism  in  our  day  is  presenting 
a  united  front  to  the  paganism  and  Mohammedan- 
ism of  the  world.  When  the  old  century  dawned 
the  Christian  populations  of  the  world  were  esti- 
mated at  200,000,000.  They  are  now  estimated  at 
550,000,000.     One  hundred  years  ago  there  were: 

Protestant  missionary  societies 13 

Male  missionaries 170 

Communicants 50,000 


i32  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  there  were : 

Protestant  missionary  societies 537 

Foreign  missionaries 14,000 

Native  ordained  preachers 54, 000 

Foreign  and  native 68,000 

Communicants 1,588,000 

Adherents 3,373,°°° 

Sunday  schools 8,000 

Sunday  school  scholars 1,100,000 

Educational  institutions 20,000 

Students  and  pupils 1,046,000 

Amount   contributed   annually   for   foreign 

missions .  $23,000,000 

In  view  of  what  has  already  been  accomplished 
it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  within  the  first  half 
of  the  present  century  the  pagan  and  Mohammedan 
world  may  be  evangelized. 


IV 

WHAT  CAN  BE  DONE  TO  INCREASE  INTEREST 
IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  COL- 
LEGE  STUDENTS   OF   AMERICA? 

There  are  two  things  that  appeal  to  college  men 
and  women  as  I  know  them — and  I  feel  that  I 
know  them.  One  is  the  appeal  of  a  thing  that  is  in 
itself  worth  doing;  the  other  is  the  spectacle  of  a 
personality  which  is  doing  or  which  has  done  a 
noble  and  worthy  thing. 

College  men  and  college  women  are  tremendously 
interested  to  make  life  tell  in  the  largest  possible 
way.  If  I  were  asked  to  name  the  one  word  that 
most  appeals  to  college  manhood  and  womanhood, 
I  should  name  the  word  reality.  They  are  not  seek- 
ing simply  an  occupation,  they  are  seeking  a  chance 
at  something  worth  doing.  They  are  not  especially 
interested  with  those  forms  of  activity  that  have  not 
in  them  a  real  service.  There  have  been  a  good 
many  theories  of  education  in  the  world  since  edu- 
cational processes  began,  and  a  good  many  words 
have  been  used  in  the  history  of  education  to  define 
its  end.  Those  old  Greeks  in  the  days  of  Aristotle 
thought  that  citizenship  was  the  end  of  training. 
The  old  Humanists  in  a  later  day  thought  that 
sweetness  and  light  were  good  on  their  own  ac- 
count.    Some  of  us  were  brought  up  on  the  theory 

*33 


i34  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

that  the  end  of  education  is  character.  There  has 
come  to  be  a  widely  current  view  outside  of  the 
colleges,  and  finding  its  way  inside  of  the  colleges, 
that  the  end  of  education  is  the  training  of  people 
for  practical  utility  so  that,  as  Mr.  Howells  said 
of  one  of  his  characters,  "a  man  can  exploit  the 
community  for  his  own  benefit."  But  take  it  by 
and  large,  the  one  word  that  is  most  in  vogue  in 
college  circles  to-day  is  not  citizenship,  not  ecclesi- 
asticism,  not  sweetness  and  light;  not  even  char- 
acter, noble  as  the  term  is.  The  one  word  most  in 
vogue  is  the  word  service,  and  the  theory  most  pre- 
vailing, especially  in  the  Christian  college,  is  that 
Christian  training  is  for  the  development  of  Chris- 
tian character  for  Christian  service. 

And  that  being  the  case,  it  comes  back  to  the 
Christian  Church  to  offer  to  her  youth  that  kind 
of  opportunity  after  graduation  that  will  make  a 
college  man's  blood  run  fast. 

Professor  James  has  discussed  the  need  of  a 
modern  equivalent  for  war  as  an  occupation.  What 
makes  war  so  appealing  to  youth  ?  Well,  war  seems 
to  be  a  thing  worth  going  into.  I  doubt  not  there 
are  men  back  here  on  this  campus  this  week  who 
were  on  this  campus  in  the  early  6o's,  who  thought 
that  their  lives  would  be  quite  well  spent  if  they 
gave  those  lives  to  the  service  of  the  nation.  And 
I  do  not  doubt  that  on  this  campus  men  quit  singing 
"Lauriger  Horatius"  and  all  the  rest  of  the  college 
songs  they  knew  and  began  to  sing,  "We  are  com- 
ing,   Father    Abraham,"    and    were    glad    of    the 


INTEREST  IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS         135 

chance,  counting  not  their  lives  dear  unto  them- 
selves. 

Now,  what  is  the  modern  equivalent  for  war 
in  its  appeal  to  college  youth?  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  to  you,  sir,  who  have  been  working  twenty 
years  and  more  at  the  administrative  end  of  a 
great  missionary  enterprise,  and  to  you,  sir,  who 
have  given  fifty  years  of  service  in  the  field,  though 
I  have  never  seen  a  day  in  the  foreign  service  in 
my  life,  that  the  Church's  missionary  enterprise  is 
the  one  largest  appeal  that  it  has  to  make  to  youth 
this  day. 

In  the  first  place,  that  is  true  because  this  is  the 
one  thing  that  is  now  best  worth  doing.  And  col- 
lege fellows  want  to  be  into  the  things  that  are 
best  worth  doing.  In  the  second  place,  this  mission- 
ary enterprise  offers  to  the  college  youth  fellow- 
ship with  the  people  that  are  best  worth  knowing. 
And  in  the  third  place,  it  gives  them  a  chance  to 
tell  the  story  that  is  best  worth  telling. 

The  Thing  that  is  Best  Worth  Knozving.  I  have 
been  preaching  in  the  colleges  for  a  great  many 
years,  and  I  am  speaking  in  this  perfectly  familiar 
way  by  permission  of  the  president.  I  talk  to  fifteen 
thousand  college  students  a  year,  and  have  for  ten 
years.  Here  is  the  favorite  stanza  out  of  all  the 
hymns  sung : 

O  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all, 

What  e'er  our  name  or  sign, 
We  own  thy  sway,  we  hear  thy  call, 

We  test  our  lives  by  thine! 


136  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

And  here,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  favorite  scripture 
to  which  college  youth  makes  quickest  response: 
It  is  the  story  of  how  One  went  into  the  synagogue 
where  he  had  been  brought  up,  into  the  congrega- 
tion, as  dull  and  respectable  as  you  are,  and  as 
respectable  as  dull,  a  congregation  living  on  its 
past  and  not  expecting  any  very  mighty  thing  to 
happen  to  any  one  of  its  sons,  a  congregation  sus- 
taining and  using  one  of  the  noblest  of  all  literatures 
then  existing,  a  literature  that  had  become  the  most 
pathetic  and  unlovely  thing  in  the  world,  a  dead 
letter — and  this  youth  stood  up  to  give  his  testi- 
mony, or  to  read  the  lesson  for  the  day,  and  reached 
back  into  that  old  literature  and  laid  hold  of  a  pas- 
sage that  ought  to  have  become  a  dead  letter,  and 
began  to  emphasize  it  as  they  never  had  heard  it 
emphasized,  and  cried  out  in  the  startled  ears  of 
those  who  suddenly  discovered  that  the  dead  letter 
became  a  living  letter  again,  "The  Spirit  of  the' 
Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to 
give  humanity  a  chance."  And  every  college  man 
will  understand  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  if  we 
had  been  sitting  there  in  that  synagogue  that  day 
when  this  young  Hebrew  stood  up  and  emphasized 
the  personal  terms  of  the  sentence,  opening,  the  door 
to  a  majestic  life,  we  would  have  been  on  our  feet 
in  an  instant;  if  we  had  been  wearing  our  college 
caps  the  college  caps  would  have  gone  into  the  air ; 
if  we  had  been  wearing  the  college  gowns  we  would 
have  swung  our  college  sleeves,  but  we  would  have 
cried  out  to  that  One  standing  there,  "If  you  are 


INTEREST  IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS         137 

going  to  do  a  thing  like  that,  we  are  with  you,  we 
are  with  you!"  That  is  youth's  response  to  the 
call  of  a  thing  that  looks  worth  doing. 

When  Sir  Philip  Sidney  was  just  a  lad  he  wrote 
to  his  brother,  saying,  "If  there  are  any  good  wars 
I  shall  attend  them."  College  students  are  always 
looking  for  good  wars  to  go  to.  And  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  now,  having  made  the  statement  I 
made  a  moment  ago,  that  even  to-day,  in  the  days 
of  great  fortunes,  to-day  in  the  days  of  great  polit- 
ical opportunity,  to-day  in  the  days  of  great  pro- 
fessional outlook,  there  is  no  appeal  that  moves  the 
college  student  heart  in  such  tremendous  degree 
as  does  the  missionary  appeal.  And  the  most  im- 
pressive spectacles  that  have  been  seen  on  this  con- 
tinent, in  my  judgment,  have  been  the  spectacles  like 
that  we  saw  at  Nashville  when  four  thousand  five 
hundred  college  students  from  seven  hundred  dif- 
ferent institutions  sat  together  considering  the  con- 
quest of  the  world  for  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Folks  Best  Worth  Knowing.  College  stu- 
dents like  good  company.  They  like,  to  use  their 
own  phrase,  to  line  up  with  the  leaders.  They  will 
throw  their  hats  in  the  air  at  the  mention  of  Liv- 
ingstone. The  story  of  Hannington  is  like  a  bugle 
call  to  college  men.  They  know  these  great  biog- 
raphies, and  you  can  fire  their  hearts  by  the  men- 
tion of  their  achievements. 

The  Telling  of  the  Story  that  is  Best  Worth 
Telling.  We  know  perfectly  well  in  the  colleges 
that  we  are  going  to  be  smart  enough,  and  we  know 


138  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

perfectly  well  that  we  are  going  to  be  rich  enougn ; 
but  we  know  also  perfectly  well  that  the  one  story 
that  is  most  needed  in  this  old  world  is  the  story 
of  One  who  came  without  personal  fault,  free  from 
personal  sin,  with  supreme  power  to  lift  men  out 
of  sin  and  to  lift  sin  off  from  men,  and  to  take  that 
story  which  stands  alone  in  the  world  and  carry  it 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  We  know  what  the  great 
business  of  this  world  is.  The  great  business  of 
this  world  is  telling  the  world  about  Jesus  Christ. 
You  think  every  once  in  a  while  that  there  may  be 
in  the  colleges  a  good  deal  of  skepticism.  But  I 
will  tell  you  a  secret  about  that  skepticism.  I  have 
not  discovered  anywhere  among  college  students 
a  desire  to  find  Jesus  Christ  less  than  what  we 
thought  him.  Always  the  eagerness  seems  to  be 
the  other  way.  They  want  to  know  that  he  was 
and  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  living  Lord  of  all  life. 
Because  if  he  is  taken  out  of  the  heavens,  if  his  face 
is  blotted  from  the  world's  literature,  then  they 
know  perfectly  well  that  there  is  no  other  story 
worth  telling  and  that  no  other  prophet  has  a 
message  in  the  world.  They  want  to  speak  the 
prophetic  word,  and  they  know  perfectly  well  there 
is  no  prophetic  word  apart  from  Jesus  Christ. 

I  spoke  of  that  great  Nashville  convention.  I 
went  to  it  under  painful,  pitiful  circumstances.  My 
college  youngster  was  that  week,  as  we  feared, 
near  the  end  of  her  earthly  life.  She  rallied  and  did 
last  for  a  year  or  more  after  that.  I  said  on  Satur- 
day night,  "I  do  not  see  how  I  can  go."    She  knew 


INTEREST  IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS         139 

my  engagement  to  go,  and  she  called  me  to  her  and 
said:  "Daddy,  I  will  not  slip  away  while  you  are 
gone.  But  there  will  be  all  those  students  at  Nash- 
ville. You  go  down  and  tell  them  what  they  know, 
that  any  one  of  them  who  gets  a  chance  to  tell  the 
story  of  Jesus  Christ  anywhere  in  the  world  ought 
to  jump  at  it." 

O,  it  is  well  worth  doing,  and  it  is  well  worth 
saying.  This  is  Christ's  last  message  to  the  world. 
And  it  is  worth  being  in.  The  impression  upon 
college  life  that  it  is  worth  being  in  makes  and 
awakens  instant  response  in  college  hearts.  I  was 
the  other  day  up  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  and  sat 
down  to  breakfast  in  the  hotel  alone.  Presently  a 
fine  young  fellow  sat  down  opposite  me.  He  was 
all  full  of  his  own  affairs.  It  was  evidently  one  of 
his  early  trips  out,  and  he  wanted  to  talk  about 
things.  After  we  had  exchanged  the  courtesies  of  the 
morning  he  asked  me  if  I  was  a  traveling  man,  and 
I  said  I  was.  "Yes,"  he  said,  "so  am  I."  And  he 
went  on  to  tell  me  that  he  was  in  the  jewelry  busi- 
ness, and  I  said  I  was  in  the  jewel  business  myself 
— "When  he  cometh  to  make  up  his  jewels,"  you 
know.  He  said,  "I  am  in  business  with  my  father." 
I  said,  "I  am  in  business  with  my  Father."  He 
said,  "My  father  started  the  business  long  ago, 
and  he  has  taken  me  into  partnership  with 
him."  And  I  said,  "My  Father  started  the  business 
long  ago,  and  I  am  in  partnership  with  him."  He 
looked  at  me  a  minute  and  he  said,  "I  have  a  sus- 
picion that  you  are  guying  me."     I  said,  "No,  I 


140  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

am  a  Methodist  preacher  and  a  Methodist  bishop, 
and  I  am  in  business  with  my  Father,  in  the  business 
he  started,  and  he  took  me  into  partnership  with 
him."  And  he  said,  "Yes,  I  am  in  business  like 
that,  too."     Then  we  understood. 

That  is  it — the  business  our  Father  started,  and 
took  us  into  partnership  with  him,  the  business  of 
telling  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  redemption. 
The  appeal  to  college  men  and  women  on  the  basis 
that  the  thing  is  worth  doing,  and  the  folks  are 
worth  knowing,  and  the  story  is  worth  telling,  will 
awaken  its  own  response. 

May  I  take  a  moment  to  say  the  rest  of  it,  that 
the  other  thing  that  appeals  to  college  men  and 
women  is  the  living  spectacle  of  one  who  has  really 
achieved  a  notable  thing  and  who  walks  before  us, 
himself  the  embodiment  of  his  own  achievement? 
You  know  perfectly  well  that  when  Lord  Roberts, 
"Bobs,"  comes  back  from  India  or  from  South 
Africa  or  from  anywhere,  and  goes  into  certain 
circles,  every  young  Englishman  who  sees  him 
wants  to  be  a  soldier.  You  know  perfectly  well  that 
when  certain  physicians,  like  William  McClure,  the 
"country  doctor  of  the  old  school,"  move  in  certain 
circles,  every  worthy  youth  in  the  community,  in- 
terpreting the  medical  profession  in  the  light  of 
its  highest  example,  wants  to  go  into  medicine.  I 
cannot  imagine  myself  how  anybody  who  ever  heard 
Phillips  Brooks  preach  could  keep  out  of  the  min- 
istry. It  seemed  to  me  that  if  I  had  gone  to  Boston 
for  other  purposes  than   to  study   theology,   if   I 


INTEREST  IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS        141 

had  heard  Phillips  Brooks  on  the  Sunday  after  Gar- 
field died,  preaching  would  have  seemed  to  me  the 
one  big  business  in  the  world,  and  I  would  have 
quit  everything  else  to  go  into  it.  I  cannot  imagine 
David  Livingstone  hearing  Robert  Moffat  with  any 
other  outcome  to  his  life  than  the  outcome  it  had. 
I  cannot  see  anything  contradictory  in  the  story 
that  when  the  death  of  Hannington  was  reported 
in  Cambridge  scores  of  Cambridge  men  were  on 
their  feet  to  offer  themselves  to  Africa  to  take  Han- 
nington's  place.  If  William  Carey  could  walk 
through  the  colleges,  he  himself  would  be  the  em- 
bodiment of  missions,  and  men  would  rise  and  say, 
"We  are  with  you."  If  Paton  should  do  it,  he  him- 
self would  make  such  appeal  to  men  that  they  would 
say,  "We  are  with  you." 

Dear  Bishop,  do  you  see  what  I  am  coming  to, 
how  I  cannot  escape  it?  You  have  glorified  and 
perfected  the  early  years  of  your  service  in  the 
field  by  these  later  years  of  your  inspiring  presence 
at  home;  for  hundreds  and  thousands  of  college 
boys  and  girls  have  interpreted  the  missionary 
vocation  in  the  light  of  your  radiant  life  and  have 
offered  themselves  to  the  service  of  your  Master 
beside  all  waters  and  under  all  skies. 


V 

DISCUSSION 

DR.    ERNEST   ASHTON    SMITH 

More  than  threescore  years  and  ten  ago,  Pres- 
ident Homer  J.  Clark,  of  Allegheny,  in  an  appeal 
to  the  ministers  and  the  members  of  the  Pittsburg 
and  Erie  Conferences,  said:  "Our  people  must  see 
the'  close  connection  existing  between  the  operations 
of  the  college  and  efficiency  of  missions.  Let  us  not 
forget  that  our  colleges  are  destined  to  furnish  many 
of  the  best  laborers  in  the  missionary  field."  This 
prophetic  utterance  was  published  when  he  whom  we 
honor  this  day,  Bishop  Thoburn,  was  a  lad  of  three 
years.  In  the  same  address  Dr.  Clark  noted  that 
there  was  a  loud  call  for  volunteers,  one  to  go  to 
Africa  and  one  to  South  America.  Jabez  A.  Bur- 
ton, one  of  the  strongest  candidates  for  the  ministry 
in  the  Class  of  1838,  answered  this  summons  and 
went  out  to  Liberia,  where  in  less  than  a  year  his 
life  was  joined  in  sacrifice  with  that  of  Melville 
Cox.  To-day  we  rejoice  that,  "though  a  thousand 
perish,"  Africa  has  not  been  given  up. 

Dr.  Martin  Ruter  resigned  the  presidency  of 
Allegheny  in  1837  and  went  to  the  new  republic  of 
Texas  as  a  foreign  land  and  in  six  months  had  won 
it  for  Methodism.  He  had  been  long  divided 
between  his  college  duties   and  the  mission  field. 

142 


DISCUSSION  143 

One  of  the  foremost  men  in  the  entire  Church  of 
that  period,  the  love  of  Christ  constrained  him  to 
launch  out  at  an  advanced  age  into  the  perils  of 
the  frontier.  In  the  intensity  of  his  zeal  he  poured 
out  his  life,  and  in  the  Boston  memorial  service  Dr. 
Ruter  was  honored  as  a  missionary  hero,  along 
with  Bishop  Coke,  who  had  been  called  to  the 
Church  triumphant  as  he  sailed  to  Ceylon. 

Rev.  Timothy  Alden,  the  founder  of  Allegheny 
College,  made  frequent  journeys  of  evangelism  to 
the  Indian  tribes  and  wrote  many  valuable  mission- 
ary treatises.  In  the  decade  of  the  20's  red  men 
were  enrolled  in  Allegheny  as  students.  Such,  then, 
have  been  the  baptism  and  the  consecration  of  this 
old  college  to  missions  from  its  earliest  years.  I 
believe  that  no  traditions  in  an  educational  insti- 
tution can  equal  in  value  those  of  its  missionary 
service. 

Oberlin  College  has  no  prouder  possession  than 
its  Martyrs'  Memorial,  erected  to  the  sixteen  lives 
offered  up  in  far-off  Shansi.  How  our  heritage  of 
to-day  is  enriched  by  the  record  and  the  influence 
of  Bishop  Thoburn,  Bishop  Harris,  Bishop  Old- 
ham, Dr.  Mansell,  Dr.  Messmore,  Dr.  Waugh,  Mrs. 
Beebe,  and  Wilbur  Swearer! 

It  is  an  all-important  problem  how  to  keep  the 
college  in  touch  with  its  missionary  responsibility. 
The  Student  Volunteer  Movement  has  given  the 
volunteer  band,  the  mission  study  class,  and  the 
college  support  of  a  missionary.  All  three  of  these 
methods  prevail  in  Allegheny.     A  band  was  early 


144  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

formed.  The  study  class  was  started  under  the 
present  plan  in  1900,  and  is  now  completing  its 
ninth  successful  year,  having  an  enrollment  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty. 

To  borrow  the  phrase  of  Dr.  Stuntz,  the  Alle- 
gheny method  has  been  the  "mass  movement" ;  the 
purpose  is  to  get  a  large  number  of  the  students 
interested.  This  body  becomes  the  inner  group  of 
the  constituency  for  the  support  of  our  foreign 
representative,  Rev.  Wilbur  Swearer,  in  Korea.  By 
a  conference  three  days  in  advance  of  each  weekly 
meeting  with  the  selected  leaders  of  all  the  college 
groups,  the  study  night  finds  the  entire  class  ready 
for  the  topic.  Our  young  people  have  come  to  see 
God  in  the  history  of  to-day,  as  they  follow  the 
missionary  advance  on  continents.  Above  all,  the 
study  class  has  been  marked  by  a  deep  devotional 
spirit.  Its  members  are  possessed  with  a  new  vision 
of  service  at  home  and  abroad.  There  has  been 
created  a  readiness  to  be  sent,  not  counting  material 
gain,  but  in  the  joy  of  a  ministry  of  love.  The 
common  spirit  animates,  that  whatever  is  done,  it 
is  as  unto  the  Lord. 

DR.   JOHN   W.    KING 

I  come  from  the  sun-kissed  hills  of  Belmont 
County,  Ohio,  bearing  the  greetings  of  the  old  home 
church  of  the  Thoburns.  I  am  learning  afresh  the 
truth  of  the  statement  that  "God  moves  in  a  mys- 
terious way  his  wonders  to  perform."  I  did  not 
understand,  two  years  ago,  why  I  should  be  slated 


DISCUSSION  145 

for  Saint  Clairsville.  On  learning  of  this  Jubilee, 
I  selected  a  second  cousin  of  the  Bishop,  a  member 
of  my  church,  to  come  to  Meadville  and  speak  for 
the  church.  He  was  taken  suddenly  ill,  and,  be- 
sides, Dr.  Crawford  insisted  that  whoever  else 
came,  I  must.  I  now  see  that  I  am  enjoying  the 
highest  honor  of  my  life  thus  far,  in  having  some 
little  part  in  this  coronation. 

Bishop  Thoburn  has  been  to  me  a  great  inspira- 
tion throughout  my  ministry.  At  my  first  Con- 
ference he  was  present,  being  home  on  furlough, 
and  preached  from  the  words,  "Covet  to  prophesy." 
It  gave  me  a  vision  of  the  New  Testament  prophet 
I  had  not  known.  Later  I  heard  him  on  the  Chau- 
tauqua platform.  This  time  the  text  was,  "Christ 
is  all."  Only  last  summer  we  celebrated  the  cen- 
tennial of  the  organization  of  our  church  at  Saint 
Clairsville.  I  said  to  my  official  board,  "I  want 
Bishop  Thoburn  to  preach  the  sermon."  A  kind 
Providence  favored  us.  The  Bishop  came  and 
preached.  The  theme  of  the  sermon  was  "An  Over- 
coming Faith."  The  story  of  Jacob  was  told  in  a 
thrilling  way,  weaving  in  with  it  some  missionary 
experiences.  The  church  was  crowded,  friends  and 
relatives  were  out  to  do  him  honor.  The  service 
made  a  profound  impression.  What  better  outline 
for  a  successful  ministry  can  we  have  than  these 
three  texts  indicate — Jesus  Christ  as  the  fulfillment 
of  prophecy  and  as  "All  in  All";  then  a  crown  of 
victory  at  last  ? 

I  had  hoped  to  bring  you  a  picture  of  the  home 


146  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

where  our  Bishop  was  born.  I  was  told  I  could 
not  do  that,  as  the  two-story  log  house  had  been 
destroyed.  However,  by  the  aid  of  the  kodak,  I 
bring  three  views  of  the  place.  Here  they  are, 
and  I  present  them  to  your  Library  for  the  Thoburn 
Alcove.  In  one  of  our  homes  a  few  days  ago  I 
was  told  the  story  of  a  young  missionary  coming 
home  on  furlough.  He  invited  his  sister  one  day 
to  take  a  walk  with  him.  They  followed  the  road 
leading  to  the  schoolhouse  on  the  pike,  whither  he 
had  so  often  gone  as  a  lad.  He  said  to  her,  "I  am 
tempted  to  stay  at  home  and  not  go  back  again  to 
India."  "You  had  a  call  from  God  to  go,  did  you 
not?"  "Certainly  I  did,"  was  the  reply.  "Have 
you  the  same  kind  of  a  call  to  stay,  flattering  as 
the  offers  are  to  do  so?"  "I  do  not  think  so,"  an- 
swered the  young  missionary,  and  the  sister  an- 
swered, "Much  as  we  should  love  to  have  you 
with  us,  you  would  better  follow  the  divine  leading." 
Later  this  same  sister  was  called  to  the  mission 
field.  Her  noble  work  for  and  with  the  women  of 
India  is  well  known. 

The  influence  of  the  Thoburn  family  lives  on 
among  my  people.  The  graves  of  the  father  and 
mother  are  only  a  few  rods  from  my  church.  A 
modest  monument  marks  the  place,  on  which  are 
inscribed  the  names  of  father  and  mother  and  of 
the  sainted  sister  whose  body  lies  in  far-away  India. 
The  name  Thoburn  kindles  the  missionary  spirit 
among  my  people.  One  class  in  the  Sunday  school 
is  named  after  the   Bishop.     This  class  is  always 


DISCUSSION  147 

heard  from  on  Missionary  Sunday.  My  hope  and 
prayer  is  that  when  God  sees  fit  to  translate  this 
brother — may  it  not  be  for  a  long  time! — his 
mantle  may  fall  on  my  people.  His  influence  now 
sweetens  our  thought,  and  his  name  is  as  ointment 
poured  forth.  Saint  Clairsville  people  of  every 
name  are  proud  that  "this  man  was  born  there." 


B.    THE  RELATION  OF  THE  COLLEGE  TO 
HOME  MISSIONS 


149 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  OUR  MIDST 

Mr.  President,  Christian  people,  I  have  come 
from  Philadelphia  to  Meadville  to  bear  fraternal 
greetings  from  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  and  Church  Extension  to  one  of  the 
greatest  missionaries  of  the  ages,  the  greatest  mis- 
sionary of  the  present  generation — Bishop  James 
M.  Thoburn,  Allegheny's  most  illustrious  son. 

The  theme  assigned  me  by  the  committee  is  "The 
Foreigner  in  Our  Midst." 

We  have  no  foreign  missions  and  no  home  mis- 
sions in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  For  conven- 
ience of  administration  there  is  an  organization 
incorporated  as  "The  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension,"  and  another  organization 
called  "The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions";  but  no 
Methodist  is  true  to  his  Church  who  is  not  thor- 
oughly loyal  to  both  Boards.  There  is  no  com- 
petition between  them,  but  a  spirit  of  cooperation. 

I  tell  you  a  brief  story.  Methodism  was  estab- 
lished on  this  continent  in  1766.  The  first  Meth- 
odist minister  was  a  local  preacher;  his  congrega- 
tion consisted  of  five  people,  his  wife  being  one  of 
the  five.  The  meetings  were  held  in  a  room  in  his 
own  house,  in  what  was  then  the  little  town  of  New 
York.     The  story  of  Methodism,  beginning  with 

*5! 


152  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Philip  Embury  in  New  York  in  1766  up  to  this 
twelfth  clay  of  April,  1909,  is  the  brightest  chapter 
of  ecclesiastical  history  that  has  been  written  since 
our  Lord  ascended  from  the  slopes  of  Olivet.  At 
that  time  we  had  not  a  foot  of  ground  or  a  pane  of 
glass  or  a  plank  or  a  shingle  or  a  pound  of  nails 
on  this  continent.  To-day  we  have  30,000  church 
buildings,  $170,000,000  invested  in  church  build- 
ings and  the  ground  on  which  they  stand, 
$40,000,000  in  parsonages,  and  $50,000,000  in 
educational  institutions,  and  I  do  not  know  how 
many  millions  in  orphanages  and  hospitals  and 
homes  for  the  friendless  and  for  the  aged  and  other 
eleemosynary  institutions.  We  are  a  great  people. 
Judging  the  future  by  the  past,  we  are  only  at  the 
beginning  of  things.  One  important  need  is  more 
money.  People  have  not  yet  learned  to  give  to  the 
cause  of  God.  We  are  just  studying  the  alphabet 
when  we  ought  to  be  over  in  Homer's  Iliad.  Our 
giving  is  magnificent  compared  with  the  past,  but 
we  are  only  in  the  infancy  of  benevolent  and  char- 
itable contributions. 

America  is  the  world's  hope.  God  would  not 
allow  the  discovery  of  America  until  the  right  time. 
It  was  in  1438  that  men  began  to  print  from  mov- 
able blocks;  in  1453  Constantinople  fell;  in  1483 
Martin  Luther  was  born,  and  when  he  was  a  little 
boy  nine  years  old,  in  1492,  Christopher  Columbus 
sailed  across  the  sea  and  rolled  up  the  curtain  which 
Almighty  God  had  allowed  to  hang  over  this  con- 
tinent   since    creation's    birth.      These    important 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  OUR  MIDST  153 

events  did  not  occur  by  accident  so  close  together  in 
the  fifteenth  century. 

An  important  battle  was  fought  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham  in  1759.  By  the  decisive  victory  of  the 
British  general,  Wolfe,  over  the  French  general, 
Montcalm,  it  was  determined  that  English,  and  not 
French,  should  be  forever  the  dominant  language 
on  this  continent,  and  that  Protestantism,  and  not 
Romanism,  should  dominate  the  New  World. 

Seven  years  after  that  question  was  settled  Em- 
bury began  to  preach,  and  just  seven  years  later  the 
first  Methodist  Conference,  consisting  of  ten  mem- 
bers, was  held  in  Saint  George's  Church  in  Phil- 
adelphia (1773),  only  a  few  squares  from  Inde- 
pendence Hall,  where  three  years  after  the  meet- 
ing of  the  first  Methodist  Conference  fifty-six 
of  the  tallest  of  the  sons  of  God  signed  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  (1776). 

Those  were  the  days  of  Lexington  and  Concord 
Bridge  and  Bunker  Hill  and  Germantown  and 
Valley  Forge,  when  the  soil  of  the  infant  colonies 
was  being  baptized  with  the  blood  of  heroes  that  a 
nation  might  be  born.  God  was  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  a  great  country,  and  he  was  building  up  a 
great  moral  and  religious  force  called  Methodism, 
which  would  to  a  great  extent  mold  and  direct  the 
thought  and  sentiment  of  the  New  World.  In 
1783  Great  Britain  recognized  our  independence, 
and  in  1784  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was 
formally  organized  in  the  city  of  Baltimore. 

These  are  dates  not  related  by  accident.     God 


i54  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

expected  large  things  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and 
we  have  not  disappointed  him.  We  consented  to 
have  our  great  Church  cut  in  two  that  we  might 
be  right  on  the  slavery  question.  The  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  met 
in  Philadelphia  in  last  December  and  adopted  reso- 
lutions on  the  Church  and  social  problems  which 
the  newspapers  published  as  wonderful  deliverances; 
and  practically  the  best  part  of  those  resolutions  was 
taken  from  the  Methodist  Discipline  adopted  by  the 
General  Conference  in  Baltimore  in  May  preceding. 
For  a  hundred  years  we  have  been  at  the  head  of 
the  procession  and  have  created  largely  the  temper- 
ance sentiment  that  exists  in  this  country  to-day. 
God  is  expecting  great  things  of  America  and  is 
expecting  great  things  of  Methodism,  the  leading 
force,  religiously,  on  the  continent.  We  have  a 
tremendous  problem  on  hand.  There  are  four  thou- 
sand men  under  the  flag  to-day  receiving  help  from 
the  Board  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent. 
When  you  think  of  a  missionary  your  thought  runs 
away  to  some  land  beyond  the  seas.  You  are  liable 
to  forget  the  brave  men  in  this  country  who  are 
toiling  on  small  salaries,  some  of  them  on  two 
hundred  or  three  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  some 
on  even  less.  They  are  among  the  black  men  of 
the  Southland,  among  the  poor  whites,  the  descend- 
ants of  the  men  who  followed  the  fortunes  of  the 
flag  in  the  6o's,  some  are  among  the  hills  of  Mon- 
tana, and  some  are  even  in  this  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania.    The  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  OUR  MIDST  155 

Extension  has  its  note  in  the  bank  to-day  for  two 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  which 
we  were  compelled  to  borrow  that  we  might  help 
to  sustain  these  four  thousand  missionaries  all  over 
the  States  and  Territories  and  insular  possessions 
of  our  great  country. 

We  must  learn  that  there  are  "foreign  missions" 
and  that  there  are  "home  missions,"  and  unless 
home  missions  are  vigorously  and  faithfully  sus- 
tained, in  the  very  nature  of  things  foreign  mis- 
sions in  time  must  suffer.  America  is  the  base  of 
supplies  for  all  missionary  fields.  I  hope  Bishop 
Hartzell  will  succeed  in  raising  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  Africa ;  but  do  not  forget  that 
there  are  eight  or  ten  millions  of  Africans  in  Amer- 
ica, and  we  are  only  touching  the  fringe  of  the 
problem  of  their  evangelization.  These  people  have 
a  claim  on  us. 

Bishop  Bashford  and  others  have  raised  a  large 
amount  of  money  to  help  the  work  in  China,  but 
we  find  it  almost  impossible  to  collect  enough  money 
from  our  people  to  rebuild  one  Chinese  church  in 
the  city  of  San  Francisco  which  in  the  providence 
of  God  was  destroyed  by  the  earthquake  three  years 
ago. 

I  preached  in  a  theater  one  Sunday  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night  in  Philadelphia,  to  a  thousand  men 
and  women  of  the  street.  We  paid  forty  dollars 
for  the  use  of  the  building  for  that  service.  It 
stands  on  a  piece  of  ground  where  we  once  had  a 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  they  sold  it  out 


156  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

and  ran  away.  In  Boston,  not  far  from  the  slopes 
of  Bunker  Hill,  we  are  paying  a  high  rent  for  a 
room  in  a  building  which  the  Church  once  owned. 
They  sold  it  and  ran  away.  We  must  quit  all  that. 
We  sold  a  church  in  Baltimore.  The  Italian  Mis- 
sion needs  a  church  just  now,  and  that  very  build- 
ing is  just  where  the  church  is  needed.  We  sold 
the  old  Wharton  Street  church  in  Philadelphia  to 
the  Roman  people  and  they  established  a  mission 
there.  I  am  not  willing  that  we  shall  sell  any  more 
Methodist  church  property  in  the  city  or  the  country. 
Keep  all  you  have,  get  more,  and  hold  all  you  get. 
That  is  the  correct  theory  for  Methodism. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  saving  the 
cities.  There  is  no  way  to  save  the  cities  only  by 
saving  the  citizens.  Save  the  individuals  one  by 
one.  You  cannot  save  people  in  platoons.  There 
is  much  talk  of  "civic  righteousness."  There  are 
not  two  kinds  of  righteousness,  one  for  the  city 
and  another  for  the  country.  There  is  just  one  kind 
of  righteousness,  and  that  is  obedience  to  the  Ten 
Commandments  and  loyalty  to  our  Lord  who  died 
for  all. 

We  must  save  the  cities,  and  to^  do  so  we  must 
save  the  citizens.  We  cannot  solve  the  city  problem 
by  simply  singing  psalms  and  distributing  tracts. 
The  great  Hadley  Mission  in  New  York  has  under- 
taken to  save  the  city  by  siege.  The  Mission  is 
open  every  night.  John  Callahan  is  doing  a  mag- 
nificent work.  More  money  is  needed  to  properly 
sustain  and  develop  the  Hadley  Mission,  which  is 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  OUR  MIDST  157 

successfully  grappling  with  the  downtown  problem. 
The  New  York  City  Missionary  Society  has  the 
largest  problem  on  hand  of  any  city  in  the  country. 
Every  city  has  its  problem.  New  York  has  the 
largest  and  most  perplexing  problem  and  needs  the 
most  money.  Dr.  Frank  Mason  North  gives  that 
city  work  wise  supervision. 

The  problem  of  the  redemption  of  the  country 
is  precisely  the  same  as  the  problem  of  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  city.  It  takes  a  little  more  money  for 
real  estate  and  buildings  in  the  city,  and  we  must 
be  more  persistent  in  our  efforts.  In  the  country 
we  can  build  a  church  costing  a  comparatively  small 
sum  and  it  becomes  the  center  of  interest  in  the 
community.  If  you  have  a  sermon  only  once  in 
two  weeks  you  can  have  a  prayer  meeting  the  other 
Sunday,  or  a  Sunday  school.  But  the  great  dif- 
ficulty before  us  to-day  is  the  city.  At  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  progress  we  shall  some  day  be  raising 
money  in  the  country  towns  to  help  evangelize  the 
city,  sO  thoroughly  foreign  are  the  large  cities  be- 
coming and  so  thoroughly  depraved  are  the  people 
in  the  worst  portions  of  our  great  cities. 

We  should  thank  God  that  the  foreigners  are 
here.  They  are  coming  at  about  the  rate  of  one 
million  a  year.  God  in  his  providence  is  thus  aid- 
ing us  in  the  work  of  foreign  missions  by  bringing 
the  people  from  distant  lands  to  our  shores.  We 
must  meet  them  with  the  spelling  book,  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  the  New  Testament.  With  our  public 
schools,  a  free  press,  a  church  that  asks  no  favors 


158  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

from  the  state,  only  opportunity  to  interpret  the 
Scriptures  and  proclaim  the  truth  according  to  its 
own  understanding,  we  are  equipped  for  our 
divinely  appointed  work. 

The  absolute  and  complete  separation  between 
church  and  state  in  this  United  States  is  in  itself  a 
lesson  to  the  people  from  other  lands.  Foreigners 
converted  at  our  altars  become  successful  mission- 
aries to  the  homeland.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  will  yet  be  aroused  to  an  appreciation  of 
the  truth  that  the  best  work  that  can  be  done  for 
foreign  peoples  will  be  done  among  the  foreigners 
who  are  here.  We  reached  the  great  German 
peoples  by  way  of  William  Nast;  the  Swedes 
through  the  conversion  of  Hedstrom ;  the  Nor- 
wegians when  Petersen  learned  the  way  of  life. 
China  will  be  reached  by  the  Chinese  who  are  here. 
Africa  appeals  to  us  through  the  eight  or  ten 
millions  of  Africans  who  are  citizens  of  this  country. 

When  large  sums  are  raised  for  China  it  should 
not  be  difficult  to  secure  a  sufficient  amount  of 
money  to  rebuild  one  Chinese  church  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

The  relation  of  home  and  foreign  missions  is 
interactive.  The  two  great  benevolent  organiza- 
tions of  the  Church  must  move  forward  in  perfect 
harmony,  each  supplementing  the  other,  and  after 
a  while  we  shall  begin  to  think  in  continents  and 
speak  in  millions. 

The  foreigner  is  in  our  midst.  He  is  here  in  the 
order  of  God's  providence.    We  must  welcome  him, 


THE  FOREIGNER  IN  OUR  MIDST  159 

treat  him  as  a  brother,  and  love  him  as  the  Saviour 
loves  him. 

We  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  is  to-day  preaching  the  gospel  in  more 
languages  than  were  used  after  the  miracle  of 
Pentecost,  and  this  is  "but  the  dawn  of  noon-tide 
yet  to  be." 

I  rejoice  with  you  on  the  occasion  that  brings  us 
together,  and  I  pray  that  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  and  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension  shall  claim  the  attention  and 
loyalty  and  devotion  of  all  the  students  of  Allegheny 
College,  and  that  when  God  asks  for  a  man  to  go, 
whether  it  be  to  a  foreign  field  or  to  a  home  field 
which  may  involve  more  sacrifice,  with  your  hand 
on  your  tombstone,  your  eye  on  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, and  your  thought  on  the  narrow  bed  in  the 
June  grass  where  we  shall  all  sleep  by  and  by,  you 
will  say,  "Here  am  I,  send  me." 


II 

THE  CITY  TO  BE  REDEEMED 

"Gocl  made  the  country,  man  made  the  town," 
has  become  a  trite  saying,  and  yet,  while  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  truth  in  it,  it  is  not  all  the  truth.  It 
lacks  exactness  as  much  as  the  Irishman's  remark 
that  it  was  a  fine  sign  of  an  overruling  Providence 
that  the  big  cities  are  all  located  on  the  rivers.  But 
from  the  day,  thousands  of  years  ago,  when  the 
sons  of  Cush  went  forth  and  built  Babel  and  Erech 
and  Accad  and  Calneh  in  the  land  of  Shinar  to  the 
day  when  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago,  and  Pitts- 
burg were  established,  there  has  been  the  evidence 
of  the  hand  of  an  overruling  Providence  in  bring- 
ing together  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  Cities  are 
not  altogether  man-made.  As  God  is  in  his  world, 
so  is  he  in  the  cities,  though  unfortunately  his 
domination  over  the  hearts  of  men  therein  is  not 
always  in  evidence.  Man  is  a  social  animal,  and 
the  vast  segregations  of  city  life  are  tokens  of  the 
native-born  instinct  asserting  itself.  Alas!  these 
cities  of  ours,  like  those  of  Lot's  day,  have  departed 
from  the  original  state  of  purity,  and  herein  they 
illustrate  man's  influence,  but  the  primeval  idea  of 
the  city  was  a  segregation  of  homes,  and  "Merrie 
England"  apprehended  this  conception  of  real  city 
life  by  the  use  of  the  old  adage,  "Every  English- 
man's home  is  his  castle." 

1 60 


THE  CITY  TO  BE  REDEEMED  161 

The  greed  for  gain  has  so  taken  possession  of 
the  holders  of  real  estate  in  our  cities  as  to  reduce 
living  to  the  condition  of  the  old  cave  dweller,  if  not 
worse.  The  craze  for  skyscrapers  is  an  evidence  of 
this  fact.  Apartment  houses  have  been  constructed 
with  great  pretensions  to  comfort  and  elegance,  and 
yet  the  heterogeneous  nature  of  the  buildings  is  so 
apparent  as  to  obliterate  the  last  vestige  of  real 
home  life.  And  when  we  deal  with  the  tenement 
life  we  touch  the  cankerous  and  cancerous  sore 
of  our  intensive  civilization — the  sweatshop,  the 
crowded  lodging  house,  the  congested,  seething 
mass  of  humanity,  herded  together,  worse  than 
cattle,  where  morality  is  at  a  premium,  and  where 
virtue  is  next  to  an  impossibility.  The  present  sys- 
tem of  housing  in  our  cities  is  ruinous  alike  to  the 
individual  and  the  nation. 

The  immigration  problem  confronts  us  at  every 
turn,  but  we  can  solve  it,  if  we  will.  The  density 
of  population  in  the  United  States  is  not  so  marked 
as  to  warrant  the  putting  up  of  the  bars  to  im- 
migrants indiscriminately  and  arbitrarily.  Our 
city  populations  are  perhaps  too  dense,  especially  in 
the  centers,  and  it  may  be  wise  to  make  some 
restrictions  in  this  direction.  Encourage  coloniza- 
tion in  the  thinly  settled  parts  of  the  States,  and  if 
necessary,  by  the  offers  of  land  grants  or  even 
money  bounties,  call  off  the  crowds  from  the  cities 
and  prohibit  the  concentration  of  immigrants  in  the 
cities,  but  never  keep  out  all  immigration.  It  would 
be  selfish  and  un-American,  and  would  rebound  with 


1 62  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

tremendous  force.  The  wealth  of  America  lies  in 
these  socalled  alien  hordes,  and  the  only  way  to 
solve  the  problem  of  immigration  is  to  treat  the 
foreigner  squarely,  deal  with  him  honestly,  and 
meet  him  fraternally. 

A  recent  writer  has  called  attention  to  the  singu- 
lar spectacle  of  Christendom  sending  missionaries 
to  the  heathen  beyond  the  seas  and  contemplating 
with  indifference  and  hopelessness  the  intensive  and 
vigorous  growth  of  heathenism  at  home.  We  pay 
the  traveling  expenses  for  our  best  men  and  women 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  foreigners  at  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  and  when  these  same  foreigners  come 
to  us  of  their  own  accord,  paying  their  own  travel- 
ing expenses,  we  turn  away  from  them  with  an- 
tipathy and  despair.  Italians  have  a  glamour  and 
picturesqueness  in  Italy  which  disappears  upon  their 
arrival  in  America.  Like  their  own  olives,  they 
seem  to  lose  their  flavor  through  transportation 
over  sea  water.  The  black-eyed  Italian  of  sunny 
Italia  becomes  a  "dago,"  a  "guinea,"  and  when  he 
moves  in  we  move  out.  Let  me  tell  you  frankly, 
as  one  who-  knows,  the  Italian  resents  very  highly 
this  kind  of  treatment.  If  the  city  is  to  be  redeemed 
we  must  catch  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  and  sound 
the  tocsin,  calling  to  arms  the  stalwart,  the  true, 
the  leal-hearted,  to  war  against  cruel  prejudice  and 
unreasoning  ignorance. 

The  difference  between  the  Irishman  and  the 
Frenchman,  according  to  Heine,  is,  that  when  the 
Irishman  does   not   like  his   government,   he  emi- 


THE  CITY  TO  BE  REDEEMED  163 

grates,  but  when  the  Frenchman  does  not  like  the 
government,  he  makes  the  government  emigrate. 
The  Church  has  pursued  too  much  the  Irishman's 
policy,  fleeing  from  adverse  environment  instead 
of  subduing  it.  It  is  like  the  company  of  militia 
that  enlisted  with  the  express  understanding  that 
they  were  never  to  be  taken  out  of  the  country, 
unless  it  should  be  invaded.  This  policy  of  retreat 
is  fatal  to  Christianity. 

Humanitarian  efforts  only  will  fail  to  meet  this 
problem ;  that  is  simply  building  a  magnificent  struc- 
ture without  foundation.  The  city  to  be  redeemed 
must  have  Christ  presented  to  it  in  the  individual 
life.  An  insane  fear  of  promulgating  sectarianism 
has  caused  a  stampede  from  religious  teaching  in 
national,  state,  and  private  philanthropic  institu- 
tions of  our  land.  Christ  may  be  presented  to  Jew 
and  Gentile,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant,  with- 
out being  an  offense  to  any.  Let  us  get  back  to 
first  principles  without  getting  back  to  past  mistakes, 
and  the  future  city  will  be  saved  from  irreligion 
and  crime. 

I  ran  across  this  sentiment  somewhere.  I  do 
not  know  the  writer,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  I  know 
the  exact  words,  but  I  believe  I  have  the  thought: 
"The  way  of  life  is  always  the  way  of  the  cross, 
because  the  possession  of  every  higher  perception 
involves  the  loss  of  a  lower  one,  the  gaining  of 
every  new  conception  of  love  the  going  of  something 
dear  and  sweet  and  familiar,  the  forming  of  every 
spiritual  tie  the  breaking  of  an  earthly  one."     It 


1 64  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

was  this  thought  that  caught  the  young  man  fifty 
years  ago  in  this  college  whom  to-day  we  honor; 
it  is  the  young  man  or  young  woman  who  has 
caught  this  vision  of  the  Christ  who  can  bring 
things  to  pass  in  the  redemption  of  the  city.  Time 
was  when  anything  was  considered  good  enough 
for  the  submerged  tenth,  the  dweller  in  the  slum, 
and  our  cities  have  been  drifting  away  from  God. 
Young  laymen  coming  from  our  colleges,  what  are 
you  ready  to  do  for  the  future?  Here  is  your  op- 
portunity. But  you  will  need  a  passion  for  souls. 
Says  Jowett:  "The  gospel  of  a  broken  heart  de- 
mands the  ministry  of  bleeding  hearts.  If  that  suc- 
cession be  broken  we  lose  our  fellowship  with  the 
King.  As  soon  as  we  cease  to  bleed,  we  cease  to 
bless.  When  our  sympathy  loses  its  pang  we  can 
no  longer  be  the  servants  of  the  passion." 

When  Henry  Martyn  reached  the  shores  of  India 
he  made  this  entry  in  his  journal :  "I  desire  to  burn 
out  for  my  God."  "I  refuse  to  be  disappointed," 
exclaimed  Hannington,  in  the  darkest  hour ;  "I  will 
only  praise."  James  Chalmers,  of  heroic  mold, 
once  said:  "Recall  the  twenty-one  years,  give  me 
back  all  its  experience,  give  me  its  shipwrecks,  give 
me  its  standings  in  the  face  of  death,  give  it  me 
surrounded  with  savages  with  spears  and  clubs, 
give  it  me  back  again  with  spears  flying  about  me, 
with  the  club  knocking  me  to  the  ground — give  it 
me  back,  and  I  will  still  be  your  missionary."  A 
short  time  after  this  was  said,  I  read  in  an  obscure 
corner  of  a  daily  newspaper  words  something  like 


THE  CITY  TO  BE  REDEEMED  165 

this:  "A  missionary  eaten  by  cannibals";  and  the 
death  of  this  modern  Paul  was  announced  to  the 
world.    Are  we  still  in  the  succession  ? 

A  little  time  ago  I  visited  a  club  of  boys  and 
girls.  There  must  have  been  fully  one  hundred  and 
fifty  present.  The  club  was  held  in  a  vacant  house 
with  hardly  a  stick  of  furniture  in  it ;  in  fact,  when 
I  talked  to  the  boys  the  great  majority  of  them  sat 
on  the  floor.  I  found  three  young  women  taking 
care  of  them.  My  first  glimpse  of  the  girls  was  as 
they  gathered  round  one  of  the  young  women. 
She  was  giving  them  some  instruction  in  sewing. 
There  were  Jews,  Syrians,  Hungarians,  Italians, 
and  Irish — a  motley  crowd  indeed.  By  and  by 
the  lady  in  charge,  who  had  invited  me  to  visit  the 
club,  made  her  appearance.  It  was  the  signal  for 
a  rush  toward  her.  There  was  no  gush  of  senti- 
mentalism ;  there  was  the  tender  touch,  the  sweet 
smile,  the  unobtrusive  clinging  that  indicated  strong 
affection.  I  took  mental  notes  of  the  scene,  and  then 
talked  with  the  young  lady.  She  is  an  intelligent 
woman,  in  fact,  an  instructor  in  a  training  school 
for  nurses,  and  is  an  earnest  Christian.  She  is 
giving  her  services  four  evenings  a  week.  It  was 
an  inspiration  to  talk  with  her.  She  said,  "Some 
of  my  friends  wonder  why  I  do  this  work,  but  O, 
I  have  just  learned  to  love  the  children" ;  and  even 
while  she  spoke  the  little  ones  passed  her  to  get  a 
smile,  a  pat  on  the  cheek,  or  a  tender  caress.  One 
little  fellow,  Joe  by  name,  a  poor,  unfortunate, 
friendless  chap,  with  only  one  eye,  stood  near  by. 


i66  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

She  called  my  attention  to  him,  and  remarked :  "We 
nursed  that  little  fellow  through  typhoid — a  nice 
boy.  Joe,  come  here."  The  little  fellow  seemed 
to  be  waiting  for  the  invitation,  and  placing  her 
arms  round  him  she  drew  him  to  her  side,  and( 
patted  him  on  the  cheek,  and  I  saw  the  suspicion  of 
a  tear  in  the  boy's  eye.  He  was  longing  for  a  little 
bit  of  love.  Do  not  call  this  sickly  sentimentality; 
it  is  the  reproduction  of  the  spirit  of  the  Master 
who  blessed  the  children.  The  young  woman  had 
caught  the  passion  of  Christ,  and  longed  for  souls, 
and  God  gave  them  to  her.  The  city  will  never  be 
redeemed  until  you  have  learned  to  give  your  life's 
blood  for  it — that  is  the  very  essence  of  redemption. 
Dr.  Guthrie  used  to  tell  an  incident  of  a  vessel 
that  came  upon  a  wreck.  They  went  on  board,  and 
found  the  emaciated  form  of  a  young  man  lying 
among  a  bundle  of  canvas.  He  was  at  the  last 
extremity,  and  they  thought  he  was  all  that  was 
left  of  the  sinking  wreck.  They  saw  that  the  poor 
dying  man  was  making  an  effort  to  speak;  they 
listened  and  heard  him  say,  "There's  another  man 
on  board."  It  was  all  that  he  could  say,  but  it  was 
enough:  he  had  done  what  he  could  to  save  his 
fellow  creature.  And  that  is  what  God  expects  of 
you  and  me.    Will  you  do  it? 


Ill 

THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST 

Petrarch  says  that  history  is  poetry  freed  from 
the  encumbrance  of  verse.  Such  history  is  mine 
to  bring  in  speaking  of  the  Empire  of  the  West. 
Around  that  theme  gathers  the  American  epic  of 
the  last  hundred  years.  Always  the  West  is  the 
optimistic,  the  soaring  soul  of  America.  The  story 
of  the  West  is  the  epic  of  discovery,  for  it  is  the 
story  of  Coronado  and  of  Zebulon  Pike;  it  is  the 
tragedy  of  liberty,  for  it  is  the  story  of  Osawatomie 
Brown;  the  idyl  of  education,  for  it  is  the  story  of 
making  state  universities  and  of  multiplied  small 
colleges;  the  lyric  of  aspiration,  because  the  wind- 
swept prairies  and  mountain  canyons  are  free.  In 
this  West  are  Lewis  and  Clark,  as  one  has  said, 
pushing  through  darkest  America  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Missouri  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia; 
there  is  the  opening  of  the  Santa  Fe  trail  and  the 
reckless  pony  express,  long  before  the  artillery  of 
Zachary  Taylor  rattled  along  the  Rio  Grande ;  there 
is  Moses  Austin  leaving  Saint  Louis  to  get  from 
Ferdinand  VII  of  Spain  permission  to  open  Texas ; 
there  is  Fremont  hoisting  the  flag  at  Sonoma  and 
Monterey ;  there  is  John  Colter  laughed  at  for  what 
he  said  he  had  seen  in  the  Yellowstone;  there  is 
John  Wesley  Powell  crashing  down  the  awful  gorge 

167 


168  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

of  the  Canyon  of  the  Colorado  River,  that  slit 
where  the  sunlight  never  falls,  that  soul  of  Bee- 
thoven and  Dante,  in  stone;  there  are  the  adventur- 
ous pioneers,  those  argonauts  of  the  desert;  there 
are  rising  commonwealths;  there  is  our  epic  West. 

When  Allegheny  College  was  founded  in  1815 
there  was  as  yet  no  West  at  all ;  and  that  was  but 
yesterday.  Josiah  Quincy  did  not  propose  to  let 
in  Louisiana.  He  did  not  propose,  and  Congress,  he 
said,  had  no  right  to  propose  to  throw  the  liberties 
of  the  United  States  into  the  "hotchpot  with  the 
wild  men  of  the  Missouri."  Civilization  had  tracked 
the  trails  of  the  big  game  across  the  mountain 
passes,  and  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Ohio  had 
come  into  the  Union,  but  the  West  was  disparaged 
because  it  was  not  known,  just  as  the  farther  West 
is  disparaged  still. 

But  since  the  founding  of  Allegheny  College  the 
West  has  been  pushed  farther  and  farther  toward 
the  setting  sun.  The  rural  free  delivery  and  the 
long-distance  telephone  have  abolished  the  country, 
until  the  waves  of  civilization  and  of  education  have 
swept  over  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  wash  the  shore 
line  of  the  Pacific. 

I  am  to  speak  of  this  West,  the  epic  of  the  pioneers 
and  their  sons,  both  of  whom  are  still  living,  and 
that  epic  song  of  those  pioneers : 

We  cross  the  prairies  as  of  old 

The  pilgrims  crossed  the  sea, 
To  make  the  West,  as  they  the  East, 

The  homestead  of  the  free — 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST  169 

a  song  of  Whittier's  actually  sung  by  the  first 
colony  of  Free  Statesmen  as  they  were  leaving 
Boston  for  Kansas  in  1854.  The  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  has  put  into  that  West  nearly  twenty 
million  dollars  missionary  money  to  pay  preachers, 
missionaries  to  save  that  West.  They  tracked  the 
prairie  schooner;  they  went  in  on  the  construction 
train;  they  traveled  circuits  larger  than  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island — and  are  doing  it  yet;  they 
preached  in  shanties  and  dugouts,  and  under  the 
canopy  of  heaven.  But  what  were  they  doing? 
What  empire  were  they  building?  And  who  were 
these  builders?     That  is  my  theme. 

It  is  now  pretty  well  settled  that  migrations  of 
men  tend  to  move  along  parallels  of  latitude.  Thus 
in  the  expansion  of  America,  Ohio,  Iowa,  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  and  the  Northwest  were  settled  by  those 
who  had  the  Puritan  spirit  because  they  had  the 
Puritan  blood.  A  professor  in  the  State  University 
of  Kansas  told  me  recently  how  a  neighbor,  a 
woman  professor  in  the  university,  born  in  the 
humblest  of  Kansas  homes,  had  got  interested  in 
her  family  tree  and  had  found  it  heading  back  into 
the  best  Plantagenet  blood  in  Burke's  Peerage,  such 
blood  as  Hampden  had,  and  Mather,  and  Cromwell, 
and  Wesley. 

I  say  this  expansion  of  the  American  people 
brought  into  the  West  the  Puritan  ideals  because  it 
brought  there  the  Puritan  blood.  See  how  in  mak- 
ing this  Empire  of  the  West  the  pioneers,  the 
pioneer  preachers,  built  those  pillars  of  civilization 


170  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

.the  churches  and  the  schools.  In  1795  in  the  un- 
trodden wilderness,  in  poverty  and  even  destitution, 
provision  was  made  near  the  Ohio  River  by  the 
Christian  pioneers  for  the  sale  of  public  lands  for 
public  schools,  and  surveyors  were  sent  to  lay  out 
a  town  as  the  seat  of  a  proposed  college.  The  town 
was  called  Athens.  It  was  eight  years  later  that 
Ohio  came  into  the  Union,  and  six  years  later  Ohio 
University  in  Athens  was  opened.  Thus,  too,  at 
Oxford,  where  in  1824  Miami  University  was 
opened.  In  this  expansion  of  America  the  Presby- 
terians modeled  their  Western  Reserve  College  after 
Yale;  Oberlin  began  as  a  communistic  experiment; 
and  think  of  what  Oberlin  meant  to  the  Union  in 
the  days  before  the  civil  war.  In  twenty-five  years 
the  university  at  Athens  graduated  but  twenty-five 
students,  and  Miami  University  was  for  years  lit- 
tle but  a  grammar  school.  The  Western  Reserve 
College  faculty  was  reduced  to  one  professor,  who 
occupied  thereby  not  only  the  chair  but  the  whole 
sofa.  Mr.  Bryce  has  said  some  sarcastic  things 
about  the  "universities"  in  Ohio  which  confer  de- 
grees— there  are  forty-one,  some  one  says — I  can 
find  but  thirty-four;  however,  thirty-four  are  nine 
more  than  in  all  New  England;  but  those  thirty- 
four  colleges,  with  their  seventeen  thousand  stu- 
dents, impregnating  year  after  year  the  little  forty- 
one  thousand  square  miles,  not  so  large  as  Maine 
and  Vermont,  which  have,  combined,  six  colleges, 
have  certainly  justified  themselves  fairly  well  in 
putting  Ohio,  in  church  and  state,  in  evidence  be- 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST  171 

fore  the  world.  Some  of  these  colleges  were  small, 
but  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  rattles  on  merrily  of 
a  day  at  Harvard : 

And  who  was  on  the  catalogue 
When  college  was  begun? 

Lord!  how  the  seniors  knocked  about 
The  freshman  class  of  one! 

America  must  never  tire  of  hearing  how  were 
founded  her  Western  colleges.  There  is  Upper 
Iowa  University.  Some  here  have  never  heard  of 
it;  but  they  have  heard  of  John  R.  Mott.  Fayette 
was  a  wilderness  in  1850;  the  place  had  scarcely 
a  half  dozen  families;  it  was  known  as  Milliken 
Bottom,  and  on  the  magnificent  ridge  near  by  the 
Indians  camped.  By  1854  the  country  was  sparsely 
settled,  and  it  was  an  impossible  journey  by  ox  team 
to  Cornell  College,  seventy-five  miles  away.  But 
by  that  time  one  pioneer  had  subscribed  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  for  a  college,  and  later  seven  thousand 
dollars  more,  and  when  his  money  gave  out  he  still 
put  up  four  thousand  acres  of  land.  Where  in 
the  annals  of  education  has  there  been  such  mu- 
nificence? In  1855,  when  the  foundations  were  ris- 
ing on  that  ridge,  the  Iowa  Conference,  which  in- 
cluded the  whole  State,  took  over  the  college,  and 
from  it  have  come  forth  heroes.  Twice  in  those 
early  days  the  building  was  unroofed  by  storms; 
but  on  a  Wednesday  evening,  April  24,  1861, 
twelve  days  after  Sumter  was  fired  upon,  a  meeting 
was  called  in  the  chapel,  and  speeches  were  made 


172  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

by  some  students,  some  of  them  to  be  known  to  fame. 
Twenty-three  of  the  little  band  enlisted  as  volun- 
teers, and  when  they  marched  away  it  was  with  a 
flag  made  by  the  girls  of  the  college.  And  as  she 
gave  it  to  them  Miss  Sorin  said:  "Take  our  flag, 
and  as  it  floats  over  you,  sometimes  give  a  thought 
to  those  by  whom  it  was  presented.  Proudly,  con- 
fidently, we  commit  it  to  your  keeping.  ' .  .  . 
As  you  have  been  proud  to  live  under  it,  if  death 
be  your  lot,  may  you  die  under  its  folds,  and  may 
God  protect  you  and  prosper  you  as  you  defend 
your  colors." 

That  flag  was  carried  by  those  college  boys  at 
Fort  Henry,  Fort  Donelson,  Shiloh,  and  Vicks- 
burg — theaters  whose  stage  called  for  the  grit  that 
surges  in  the  Puritan  blood;  and  those  who  came 
back  from  that  stage  became  Methodist  preachers 
and  the  fathers  of  Methodist  preachers,  those  mak- 
ers of  the  epic  West. 

That  was  what  made  Iowa.  Upper  Iowa  Univer- 
sity has  been  poor,  but  it  has  been  rich  enough  to 
have  awakened  such  a  personality  as  John  R.  Mott. 

Iowa  has  eight  Methodist  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, seven  colleges  and  one  academy ;  but  when  these 
are  filled  with  thousands  of  students  there  is  still 
enough  of  Methodist  college  material  left  to  fur- 
nish nearly  seventy  per  cent  of  the  students  at  the 
State  Normal  and  Agricultural  Colleges,  and  a 
large  per  cent  of  the  student  body  of  the  State 
University.  And  whether  they  have  made  good, 
the  long  line  of  Methodist  statesmen  and  church- 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST  173 

men  attest.  Some,  for  homogeneity,  for  average  of 
culture,  wealth,  conservatism,  Americanism,  put 
Iowa  at  the  head  of  American  commonwealths. 
There  are  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand 
Methodist  church  members  in  Iowa.  There  are 
twenty-six  degree-conferring  colleges  in  Iowa,  and 
in  them  nearly  fourteen  thousand  young  people  are 
at  school. 

In  Iowa,  too,  is  Cornell  College.  And  President 
William  Fletcher  King — name  ever  to  be  spoken 
in  praise  if  one  can  pass  beyond  the  sentiment  of 
love — has  told  me  how  in  that  incomparable  meadow 
which  like  a  horseshoe  surrounds  the  gently  swell- 
ing and  heavily  wooded  knoll  on  which  the  college 
stands — President  King  has  told  me  how,  in  that 
meadow  he  saw  the  smoke  curling  from  the  wig- 
wams and  tepees  of  Indians  in  those  distant  years, 
quite  fifty  years  ago,  when  he  came  from  the  Ohio 
Wesleyan  in  1857.  Cornell  College  has  a  faculty 
of  forty-six  men,  a  plant  worth  $328,000,  and  an 
endowment  of  $642,226.  Only  six  of  our  insti- 
tutions have  an  endowment  so  great. 

Cornell  began  at  the  beginning  of  Methodism 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  making  of  the  Greater  West.  She  was  poor, 
she  was  endangered,  but  she  survives.  There  is 
no  college  in  Iowa  of  higher  reputation,  and  her 
record  is  a  part  of  the  inspiring  record  of  the  Church 
and  of  the  nation. 

But  earlier  than  these  I  have  named  is  Iowa  Wes- 
leyan.    It  was  chartered  by  the  territorial  legis- 


174  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

lature,  and  James  Harlan,  friend  of  Lincoln,  United 
States  senator,  and  member  of  Lincoln's  Cabinet, 
was  its  first  president.  And  I  must  name  that 
Irishman,  Charles  Elliott,  too,  who  vibrated  between 
the  schoolmaster's  desk  and  the  tripod,  being 
editor  in  the  course  of  time  of  the  Pittsburg,  the 
Western,  and  the  Central  Christian  Advocates. 
What  these  men  and  their  successors,  and  their  stu- 
dents, and  the  sons  of  their  students  have  wrought 
is  written  in  the  deathless  story  of  a  Common- 
wealth, a  Church,  and  a  Republic. 

I  was  going  out  to  the  Kansas  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity one  afternoon  when  a  beautiful  old  New 
England  lady,  who  looked  as  if  a  figure  of  Giotto 
was  just  stepping  from  the  canvas,  sat  down  op- 
posite me  in  the  dining  car.  Presently  she  ventured 
to  ask,  "Are  there  any  colleges  in  Kansas?"  I 
replied,  "Only  twenty,  and  Massachusetts  has 
thirteen.  The  city  the  train  just  left,  you  may  have 
observed,  was  named  Lawrence.  It  was  named 
for  Amos  Lawrence,  for  whom  our  Lawrence  Uni- 
versity at  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  was  also  named, 
and  for  whose  brother  Abbott,  who  came  within  a 
few  votes  of  being  elected  President  of  the  United 
States,  Lawrence  Scientific  School  at  Cambridge 
was  named."  At  Lawrence  is  the  Kansas  State 
University  with  its  income  of  nearly  a  half  million 
dollars,  its  student  body  of  twenty-five  hundred, 
and  its  faculty  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen.  But 
it  is  twenty  miles  away  that  there  is  a  still  better 
illustration    of    that    Puritan    spirit    which    makes 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST  175 

Kansas  perhaps  the  best  survival  of  Puritanism  in 
this  land. 

Kansas  came  into  the  Union  in  186 1,  about  sixty 
days  before  Sumter  was  struck.  But  six  years 
earlier,  in  1855,  when  the  days  were  dark  and 
Kansas  was  bleeding,  the  Methodist  preachers  in 
a  little  log  cabin  began  talking  of  a  needed  college. 
In  1858  the  territorial  legislature  gave  the  charter 
and  Baker  University  began.  Her  campus  was 
almost  in  sight  of  the  battlefields  of  John  Brown. 
She  was  poor;  once  the  sheriff  came  to  take  her 
bell  and  library  to  satisfy  creditors ;  but  the  preach- 
ers and  teachers  lived  on  cornbread  and  water  a 
while  longer  to  save  that  institution.  When  the 
war  came  on  the  president  of  Baker  heard  the  first 
drum  taps  and  entered  as  chaplain.  Baker  is  not  yet 
on  "Easy  Street" ;  but  consider  her  long  list  of  dis- 
tinguished alumni,  not  forgetting  Secretary  Rand- 
all of  the  Epworth  League,  United  States  Senator 
Joseph  L.  Bristow,  Bishop  William  Alfred  Quayle, 
and  here  in  Allegheny  College,  second  to  none  of 
them  in  point  of  character,  Professor  Frank  C. 
Lockwood,  of  the  faculty.  It  is  the  common 
opinion  of  people  throughout  Kansas  that  no  other 
institution  has  done  anywhere  near  so  much  in 
molding  that  State  as  has  this  Methodist  college. 

Besides  Baker  are  the  Kansas  Wesleyan  and 
Southwestern,  both  emerging  into  a  large  life. 
And  what  have  these  colleges  and  the  spirit  which 
maintained  them  done?  Go  ask  India  or  the  Phil- 
ippines, Thoburn  or  Oldham.    Ask  those  anywhere 


176  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

who  wage  war  against  the  saloon.  A  few  days  ago, 
at  the  Southwest  Kansas  Conference,  one  district 
superintendent  reported  that  his  district,  an  agri- 
cultural district,  had  given  for  missions  this  Con- 
ference year  eighty-eight  thousand  dollars.  These 
are  types  of  the  Empire  of  the  West  which  the 
Methodist  pioneers  did  their  full  part  to  create. 

And  as  for  Oklahoma,  there,  where  we  can  ob- 
serve a  great  State  in  the  making,  a  group  of  men, 
one  of  whom  was  a  Thoburn,  a  son  of  the  brother 
of  James,  and  who  was  the  secretary  of  the  group, 
incorporated  Epworth  University ;  while  a  daughter 
of  this  brother  of  James  was  dean  of  women  in 
another  Western  Methodist  college. 

As  for  Colorado :  I  once  ventured  to  ask  a  gentle- 
man in  Quebec  where  Buffalo  Bill's  Wild  West 
Show,  which  was  that  day  doing  business  in  Que- 
bec, came  from.  "From  Denver,  Colorado,"  he 
said.  I  begged  to  tell  him  that  Denver  was  my 
home,  and  that  Buffalo  Bill's  Wild  West  Show 
was  quite  as  great  a  curiosity  in  Denver  as  it  could 
be  in  Quebec.  According  to  the  government 
census,  there  are  six  times  as  many  Indians  on  the 
Indian  reservations  in  New  York  as  there  are  in 
Colorado  (and  in  this  I  do  not  count  Tammany). 
There  are  four  times  as  many  Indians  in  New  York 
as  there  are  in  Wyoming,  and  thousands  more  than 
in  Idaho ;  and  they  are  quite  as  savage. 

While  as  yet  Colorado  was  a  land  unknown,  in 
the  early  days  of  the  pony  express,  John  Evans, 
that  railroad  and  empire  builder,  founder  of  Evans- 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  WEST  177 

ton,  and  with  his  brother-in-law  Orrington  Lunt 
and  Grant  Goodrich  the  founder  of  Northwestern 
University,  was  sent  by  his  friend  Abraham  Lincoln 
to  be  governor  of  the  raw  territory.  About  the 
first  thing  John  Evans  did  was  to  found  what  is 
the  University  of  Denver,  and  the  contributions  of 
this  institution  can  be  measured  when  we  recall  the 
stamina  of  its  population  and  the  fact  that  with 
the  university  have  been  connected  Ammi  B.  Hyde, 
of  Allegheny  College,  as  trustees  Earl  Cranston 
and  Henry  White  Warren,  and  as  chancellors 
David  H.  Moore  and  William  Fraser  McDowell. 
The  Congregationalists  have  in  Colorado  one  of 
their  best  colleges.  The  higher  values  are  not 
neglected.  There  are  troubles,  outbreaks,  some- 
times a  pistol  shot  in  the  mines;  but  Pennsylvania 
has  heard  the  like  at  Homestead  and  in  the  coal 
breakers.  Over  all,  Colorado  is  not  a  mining  so 
much  as  an  agricultural  and  horticultural  State. 

These  States  are  types  in  the  Empire  of  the  West 
still  in  the  making.  There  are  also  ancient  civiliza- 
tions in  that  West;  for  New  Mexico  was  visited 
by  Coronado,  and  Santa  Fe — the  city  of  the  Holy 
Faith — is  dim  with  antiquity.  And  outside  of  Santa 
Fe  and  Albuquerque  are  the  pueblos  of  those  chil- 
dren of  the  sky,  those  kin  people  of  the  cliff  dwell- 
ers. There  are  the  cow  puncher  and  the  miner ;  there 
are  the  flagilantes,  the  Mexican  greaser,  the  Spanish 
priest;  there  also  is  the  Puritan,  though  it  is  hard 
to  find  him  on  Sunday.  The  deserts  ache  with  heat, 
and  through  the  air  darts  not  one  single  bird;  but 


178  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

with  irrigation  these  deserts  break  the  apple  trees 
with  their  crops ;  and  wTith  future  irrigating  systems 
they  will  have  a  distinct  place  in  the  future  of  the 
Republic.  The  college,  though  a  weak  one,  is  also 
there. 

Mr.  Chairman,  you  will  observe  in  all  this  one 
trait  of  the  West,  though  I  have  not  mentioned  it : 
The  West  is  modest.  Do  not  smile.  The  West  is 
to-day  Puritan  America.  It  is  homogeneous  because 
it  is  agricultural,  because  it  is  educated,  because 
it  is  led  by  the  products  of  Christian  schools.  It 
is  homogeneous  because  though  there  are  millions 
of  immigrants,  these  immigrants  are  themselves 
pioneers — agriculturists  made  similar  in  the  melt- 
ing pot  of  our  churches  and  schools. 

Mr.  Chairman,  when  Allegheny  College  was 
founded  the  center  of  population  was  scarcely  west 
of  Washington.  It  has  surged  across  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  across  the  prairies  of  a  West  scarcely 
dreamed  of  by  Josiah  Quincy  and  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson ;  it  is  approaching  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
time  is  not  far  when  it  will  cross  that  stream.  But, 
Mr.  Chairman,  the  geographical  center  of  the  Re- 
public is  in  the  State  of  Kansas ;  and  as  the  center 
of  population  approaches  it,  you  need  not  fear,  it 
will  be  met  by  the  Christian  churches  and  Christian 
colleges  which  were  founded  by  the  pioneers. 


IV 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NEGRO 

The  negro  is  here.  He  cannot  be  eliminated  or 
ignored.  He  is  constantly  referred  to  as  a  problem. 
The  sooner  he  ceases  to  be  a  problem  and  is  recog- 
nized as  an  American  citizen  and  a  man — a  constit- 
uent part  of  the  body  politic,  with  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity and  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a  man — the 
better  for  the  negro  and  for  the  nation. 

It  is  evident  that  any  serious  consideration  of 
the  civil,  moral,  and  religious  life  of  the  nation 
will  not  leave  the  negro  out  of  account.  Negroes 
constitute  one  eighth  of  the  population.  They  have 
to  do  with  the  character  and  history,  the  political 
life  and  social  well-being  of  the  nation.  History 
must  take  account  of  the  negro,  for,  as  now  con- 
ceived, history  records  the  development  of  races 
and  nations;  the  education  and  life,  the  achieve- 
ments, the  welfare  and  progress  of  all  people. 

Political  economy  must  consider  him.  He  is  a 
part  of  the  body  politic,  and  sooner  or  later  must 
be  counted  as  a  potent  factor  in  the  political  life  of 
the  Republic.  Economics  must  keep  the  negro  in 
view ;  for  "the  study  of  economics  no  longer  means 
simply  a  broad  survey  of  the  nature  and  causes 
of  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  but  looks  to  the  con- 
dition of  all  the  people,  their  poverty  or  wealth, 

179 


180  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

their  progress  or  decline ;  their  moral  and  religious 
status.  These  elements  make  for  economic  effi- 
ciency and  constitute  the  strength  or  weakness  of 
the  nation. 

Political  philosophy  cannot  ignore  the  negro.  He 
cannot  be  set  off  by  himself.  For  weal  or  woe, 
white  and  black  are  bound  together.  His  condi- 
tion affects  society.  Just  as  Edom  was  a  constant 
menace  and  curse  to  Israel,  so  to-day  any  degraded 
people  drag  down  their  neighbors.  In  short,  every 
comprehensive  movement  in  America,  in  church 
or  school,  looking  to  the  general  religious  and  moral 
life  and  welfare  of  the  people,  must  have  the  negro 
in  view. 

The  problem  of  sectionalism  is  settled.  Who, 
living  amid  the  strifes  of  reconstruction  forty  years 
ago,  could  have  prophesied  that  to-day,  over  the 
graves  of  the  blue  and  the  gray,  .the  North  and 
the  South  would  clasp  hands  in  fraternity  and 
peace?  The  problem  of  the  races,  however,  is  un- 
settled. Have  we  not  reason  to  hope  that  within 
the  next  generation  races  which  God  in  his  prov- 
idence has  placed  here  side  by  side  may  find  a  per- 
manent basis  of  mutual  confidence,  forbearance, 
and  respect  that  will  enable  them  to  dwell  together 
in  peace  and  equity?  Let  no  man  lift  a  hand  or 
enact  a  law  that  may  delay  this  day  of  racial  security 
and  prosperity. 

The  negro  is  here  through  no  fault  of  his  own. 
He  was  not  so  much  invited  as  he  was  urged,  forced, 
brought  here  by  the  concurrence  of  both  Southern 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NEGRO  181 

and  Northern  men.  His  passage  even  was  paid, 
as  is  the  case  of  no  other  immigrant  to  America. 

And  he  is  here  in  the  providence  of  God. 
Through  the  ordeal  of  slavery  in  a  Christian  land, 
the  negro  has  gained  four  inestimable  blessings, 
namely:  ideas  of  law  and  order,  the  power  of  sus- 
tained work,  the  English  language,  and  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  In  a  word,  he  has  gained  civilization. 
And  who  but  the  negro  would  ever  have  opened  up 
and  developed  the  opulent  resources  of  the  South- 
land, under  a  semitropical  sun — who  but  this  hardy, 
cheerful,  sinewy  son  of  the  tropics? 

The  negro  is  free  through  no  fault  of  his  own. 
And  during  the  bloody  and  awful  crisis  of  his  being 
freed  he  ever  proved  true.  He  coveted  freedom. 
He  knew  that  his  master  was  fighting  to  rivet  the 
bonds  that  held  him,  and  that  the  triumph  of  Fed- 
eral arms  would  set  him  free.  Yet,  while  he  never 
betrayed  a  Union  soldier,  at  the  same  time  he  never 
betrayed  the  trust  of  his  master.  Those  thrilling 
words  of  Henry  W.  Grady  should  at  this  time 
awaken  anew  the  sense  of  gratitude  and  obligation 
in  the  heart  of  every  Southern  man :  "History  has 
no  parallel  to  the  faith  kept  by  the  negro  in  the  South 
during  the  war.  Often  five  hundred  negroes  to  a 
single  white  man,  and  yet  through  these  dusky 
throngs  the  women  and  children  walked  in  safety, 
and  the  unprotected  homes  rested  in  peace.  A  thou- 
sand torches  would  have  disbanded  every  Southern 
army,  but  not  one  was  lighted.  When  the  master, 
going  to  a  war  in  which  slavery  was  involved,  said 


1 82  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

to  his  slave,  'I  leave  my  home  and  loved  ones  in 
your  charge,'  the  tenderness  between  man  and 
master  stood  disclosed.  And  when  the  slave  held 
that  charge  sacred  through  storm  and  temptation, 
he  gave  new  meaning  to  faith  and  loyalty.  I  rejoice 
that  when  freedom  came  to  him,  after  years  of 
waiting,  it  was  all  the  sweeter  because  the  black 
hands  from  which  the  shackles  fell  were  stainless 
of  a  single  crime  against  the  helpless  ones  confided 
to  his  care." 

A  race  that  could  show  such  devotion  to  a  people 
and  such  fidelity  to  a  sacred  trust  has  not  changed 
its  nature  in  a  single  generation.  Dazed  by  his  new- 
found freedom,  misled  by  Northern  politicians  on 
the  one  hand  and  distrusted  by  his  old  friends  on 
the  other,  though  his  attitude  has  a  little  changed, 
there  is  in  him  yet  as  freeman  a  genuine  basis  on 
which  to  rebuild  and  again  firmly  establish  the  shat- 
tered relations. 

The  negro  holds  the  ballot  through  no  fault  of 
his  own.  He  did  not  seek  it.  It  was  placed  in  his 
hands  largely  as  a  political  measure.  Men  call  it 
a  blunder.  It  surely  was  a  fearful  risk,  for  I 
recall  that  warning  word  of  Wendell  Phillips  that 
an  ignorant  ballot  is  the  winding  sheet  of  liberty. 
But  it  is  my  conviction  that  it  was  one  of  those 
"blunders"  of  Providence  in  the  interests  of  hu- 
manity. It  has  cost  the  negro  much,  but  it  has 
made  him  a  citizen.  And  let  not  the  members  of 
legislatures  in  several  Southern  States  consider 
that    by    measures    calculated    to    practically    dis- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NEGRO  183 

franchise  the  negro  they  are  avenging  a  wrong  done 
the  South  by  the  North  in  giving  the  ballot  to  the 
negro.  Mr.  James  Bryce,  the  thoroughly  disin- 
terested English  ambassador,  in  his  "American 
Commonwealth,"  shows  that  if  the  South  had  at 
once  "accepted  the  total  results  of  the  war  they 
would  have  moved  out  into  a  new  age  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions."  He  notes  "their  huge 
mistake  in  rejecting  the  constitutional  amendment 
offered  by  Congress.  If  that  had  been  done  there 
would  have  been  no  delay  in  the  return  of  the  States, 
and  no  enfranchisement  of  the  colored  man."  And 
he  quotes  Justice  Lamar,  of  Mississippi,  to  show 
that  the  inevitable  result  of  rejecting  the  consti- 
tutional amendment  by  the  Southern  States  was 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  negro.  The  South, 
then,  must  share  the  responsibility  of  his  enfran- 
chisement. 

History,  however,  will  show  that  the  ballot  has 
been  the  greatest  force  in  lifting  the  negro  from 
serfdom  into  manhood.  And  that  which  lifts  into 
manhood  any  member  of  the  body  politic  is  a  bless- 
ing to  the  state.  The  ballot  in  his  hand  lifted  the 
negro  out  of  the  mass  and  made  him  count  as  one. 
It  saved  him  from  a  state  of  practical  peonage,  to 
which  enactments  in  several  States  were  consigning 
him.  It  is  his  misfortune  that  the  Republican 
Party  exploited  him  as  a  voter  and  did  not  develop 
him  as  a  citizen.  Yet  no  race,  under  like  condi- 
tions, ever  before  made  such  progress  in  citizenship 
in  a  single  generation. 


1 84  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  growing  spirit  of 
confidence  and  good  will  among  the  better  classes 
of  both  races.  This  is  so  notwithstanding  a  certain 
degree  of  lawlessness  and  crime.  The  negro  has 
come  to  see  that  his  salvation  is  not  in  the  Repub- 
lican Party ;  that  there  is  small  sympathy  with  him 
in  the  heartless  machine  of  modern  politics;  that 
his  best  future  lies  in  self-respecting  adjustment 
.to  the  people  among  whom  he  lives.  Trusted 
leaders  of  the  race  are  conservative  and  seek  a  right 
adjustment  of  the  race  to  its  present  environment. 

The  accumulation  of  property,  the  advance  in 
knowledge,  the  genuine  progress  of  the  negro  along 
all  lines,  is  unprecedented.  I  have  often  been  in 
counties  where  there  are  four  negroes  to  one  white 
man.  Their  relations  in  nineteen  communities  out 
of  twenty  are  now  peaceable. 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  negro  is  Amer- 
ican by  birth,  training,  spirit,  and  ideals.  Those 
count  for  Americanism,  and  not  race  or  color.  On 
sober  second  thought  the  .South  is  realizing  this, 
and  the  enthusiasm  for  foreign  immigration  is  sub- 
siding. They  find  that  the  Teutonic  stock  of 
northern  Europe  will  not  come  to  the  South  in  ade- 
quate numbers  and  compete  with  hard-working, 
low-waged  negroes.  The  broad  and  opulent  fields 
of  the  South  and  its  unmeasured  resources  are  only 
barely  touched.  They  await  full  development.  The 
obstacle  is  not  the  negro.  He  has  done  his  part. 
Unused  to  freedom,  untrained  in  skilled  work,  he 
has  since  emancipation  done  all  that  could  reason- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NEGRO  185 

ably  be  expected  of  him.  Not  fewer  negroes  but 
more  loyal,  earnest,  well-equipped  negroes  are 
needed.  All  things  considered,  the  negro  is  the  best 
laborer  available  for  the  semitropical  climate  of  the 
South. 

Again,  the  negro  is  demonstrating  his  manhood 
qualities  in  his  evident  intellectual  capacity.  Three 
thousand  negroes  have  taken  collegiate  degrees,  ten 
per  cent  of  these  in  Northern  colleges;  illiteracy 
has  been  cut  down  nearly  fifty  per  cent  in  forty 
years.  Professor  Shaler,  of  Harvard,  a  man  of 
Southern  birth,  says,  "There  are  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  black  men  who  in  capacity  are  to  be 
ranked  with  the  superior  persons  of  the  dominant 
race,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  that  in  any  evident  feature 
of  mind  they  characteristically  differ  from  their 
white  fellow  citizens." 

The  race  has  progressed  educationally  in  spite  of 
conditions.  That  they  have  made  the  best  of 
meager  opportunities  is  indicated  by  such  facts  as 
these:  that  while  in  1901  the  expenditure  in  South 
Carolina  for  the  education  of  each  white  child  was 
$3.95,  for  the  education  of  the  colored  child  it  was 
only  74  cents.  Conditions  have  not  improved  since 
then.  When  it  is  realized  that  in  such  a  State  as 
Illinois  the  per  capita  expenditure  for  education  is 
over  thirty  dollars,  this  educational  quickening  and 
advancement  of  the  race  is  almost  unexampled. 

Again,  the  showing  of  the  Twelfth  Census  is 
greatly  in  favor  of  the  negro  in  proving  that  he 
does  not  shirk  labor,  but  still  produces  his  full  share 


1 86  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

of  the  cotton  crop.  In  1899,  out  of  a  cotton  crop 
of  9,534,707  bales,  negro  proprietors  alone  produced 
3,707,881  bales,  or  thirty-nine  per  cent  of  the  total 
crop.  These  proprietors  numbered  only  746,715, 
against  1,418,343  negro  agricultural  laborers.  This 
shows  that  if  these  hired  laborers  were  as  efficient 
as  the  independent  tenants  nearly  the  entire  cotton 
crop  of  the  South  stands  to  their  credit. 

Now,  it  is  in  view  of  such  facts,  showing  the 
American  birth,  spirit,  and  ideals  of  the  negro,  his 
manhood  qualities  and  his  growth  upward  in  the 
strength  of  character  that  is  the  basis  of  good 
citizenship,  that  we  should  consider  the  question 
as  to  his  disfranchisement  through  unfair  and  un- 
equal un-American  laws. 

The  representative  negroes  of  the  South  have 
come  to  believe,  with  all  thinking  men,  in  a  restricted 
ballot.  They  favor  an  educational  and  even 
property  qualification  that  applies  to  all  citizens 
alike.  They  are  also  convinced  that  politics  alone 
cannot  settle  the  race  problem. 

Now,  what  will  be  the  outcome  of  such  measures 
as  the  disfranchisement  laws  with  their  "under- 
standing" and  "grandfather"  provisions,  that  are 
acknowledged  to  be  open  doors,  inviting  to  dis- 
crimination and  fraud  against  the  black  man?  In 
the  first  place,  such  laws  will  dishearten  the  pro- 
gressive and  degrade  still  further  the  idle,  profligate, 
and  indifferent  among  the  negroes.  They  will  tend 
to  mass  the  ignorant  of  both  races  in  hostile  camps, 
and  thus  endanger  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  our 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NEGRO  187 

civilization.  As  Bryce  well  says  in  his  "American 
Commonwealth,"  after  a  careful  study  of  the 
American  problem:  "Nothing  is  so  dangerous  to 
a  state  as  a  submerged  class.  It  contains  Samsons 
who  will  in  the  end  be  feeling  for  the  pillars  of  the 
state.  The  massing  of  ignorance  is  a  blind  but 
terrible  force,  to  be  dreaded  by  any  civilization. 
The  colored  problem  will  be  solved,  >  but  never 
satisfactorily  till  the  leaders  in  church  and  state  of 
the  South  address  themselves  sympathetically  to 
the  great  work." 

Such  unfair  and  un-American  laws  are  not  de- 
signed to  encourage  and  uplift  the  negro  and  to 
make  of  him  an  aspiring  man  and  a  worthy  citizen. 
They  are  meant  to  put  on  him  a  political  weight 
that  will  crush  out  of  the  race  all  hope  for  honor- 
able citizenship,  and  for  that  equality  of  opportunity 
that  is  the  right  of  every  self-respecting  citizen. 

Such  a  policy  of  repression  and  domination  by 
discrimination  or  fraud,  based  on  color,  will  not 
settle  the  problem.  The  old  axiom  has  proved  true 
in  American  politics,  "Nothing  is  settled  until  it  is 
settled  right."  This  bill  in  operation  would  un- 
settle relations  that  are  now  in  process  of  peaceful 
adjustment.  You  cannot  bury  one  of  the  inalienable 
rights  of  man,  and  by  resolution  and  enactment 
forever  screw  down  and  fasten  its  coffin  lid  beyond 
resurrection.  Right  and  truth,  in  the  end,  will  rise 
in  their  might,  burst  the  coffin  lid,  and  live  to  vex 
men  until  they  are  adjusted  in  harmony  with  the 
law  of  right,  and  with  the  law  of  God.    Such  laws 


THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

have  to  do  not  with  the  condition  of  a  race  merely, 
but  with  human  rig. 

Laws  thus  framed  cannot  stand  before  the  en- 
lightened conscience  of  mankind.  They  make  for 
the  degradation  of  Southern  commonwealths  in  the 
eyes  of  an  enlightened  world.  Maryland,  Georgia, 
and  North  Carolina  are  not  the  only  States  that 
face  this  problem  of  illiterate  and  immoral  citizen- 
ship. Xew  York  has  the  same  problem.  It  made 
the  Tweed  ring  possible.  It  supports  the  Tammany 
oligarchy.  It  corrupts  the  ballot.  It  robs  the 
treasury.  It  is  a  greater  menace  to  the  state  than 
the  ballot  of  the  negro.  Does  Xew  York  meet  this 
evil  in  a  spirit  of  repression  that  would  keep  these 
voters  in  permanent  subjection  through  ignorance 
and  fraud?  Xo.  She  trusts  to  schools,  to  churches. 
to  the  spirit  of  enlightenment,  to  the  agencies  of 
redemption  among  these  unredeemed  and  turbulent 
and  corrupt  masses  for  their  uplifting  into  self- 
respecting  and  safe  American  citizenship.  This  is 
all  that  the  negro  asks.  It  is  the  least  that  the  race 
which  holds  the  power  and  wealth  and  government 
of  this  land  should  accord.  A  Southerner,  the  son 
and  grandson  of  slave  owners,  has  well  expressed 
the  true  American  idea :  "Every  interest  in  the  land 
demands  that  the  f reedman  be  free  to  become  in  all 
things,  as  far  as  his  own  personal  gifts  will  lift  and 
sustain  him.  the  same  sort  of  American  citizen  he 
would  be  if.  with  the  same  intellectual  and  moral 
caliber,  he  were  white."  Henry  \Y.  Grady  looked 
forward   to   the   time   when   the   solution   of   this 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NEGRO  189 

problem  in  equity  and  fairness  to  all  would  "prove 
our  blessing,  and  the  race  that  threatened  our  ruin 
would  work  our  salvation,  as  it  fills  our  fields  with 
the  best  peasantry  the  world  has  ever  seen;  when 
the  South  may  stand  upright  among  the  nations 
and  challenge  the  judgment  of  man  and  the  approval 
of  God  in  having  worked  out  in  their  sympathy  and 
in  his  guidance  this  last  and  surprising  miracle  of 
human  government." 

How  did  this  man  of  prophetic  vision  propose 
to  bring  about  this  end?  He  clearly  realized  the 
seriousness  of  the  problem  before  the  South  "to 
carry  within  her  body  politic  separate  races,  equal 
in  civil  and  political  rights  and  nearly  equal  in 
numbers."  But  he  believed  that  the  only  permanent 
solution  was  one  that  was  in  righteousness  and  that 
by  its  fairness  to  all  would  bring  peace.  He  there- 
fore said :  "She  must  carry  these  races  in  peace, 
for  discord  means  ruin ;  she  must  carry  them  in  equal 
justice,  for  to  this  she  is  pledged  in  honor  and  grati- 
tude. She  must  carry  them  even  to  the  end,  for  in  all 
human  probability  she  will  never  be  quit  of  either." 
In  ringing  words  that  are  a  rebuke  to  the  spirit 
of  such  laws,  in  words  I  would  that  every  voter 
and  every  legislator  might  hear  and  heed,  for  the 
honor  of  the  South  and  for  the  welfare  of  both  races, 
Mr.  Grady  pleaded :  "Let  this  resolution  be  cast  on 
lines  of  equity  and  justice.  Let  it  be  the  pledge  of 
honor,  safe  and  impartial  administration,  and  we 
shall  command  the  support  of  the  colored  race  itself, 
more  dependent  than  any  other  on  the  protection 


i9o  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

and  bounty  of  the  government.  Let  us  be  wise  and 
patient,  and  we  shall  secure  through  its  acquiescence 
what  otherwise  we  should  win  through  conflict  and 
hold  in  insecurity." 

Thus  Henry  W.  Grady,  the  great-hearted,  far- 
seeing  friend  of  the  South,  would  "render  back  this 
problem  in  the  world's  approval"  and  "make  clear 
that  new  and  grander  way  up  which  the  South  is 
marching  to  higher  destiny."  "Not  in  passion,  my 
countrymen,  but  in  reason;  not  in  narrowness,  but 
in  breadth ;  that  we  may  solve  this  problem  in  calm- 
ness and  in  truth,  and,  lifting  its  shadows,  let  per- 
petual sunshine  pour  down  on  two  races,  walking 
together  in  peace  and  contentment." 


THE  NEW  CALL  TO  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

A  branch  of  home  missions  characterized  as 
"social  service"  may  be  greeted  with  some  surprise, 
if  not  suspicion.  And,  indeed,  the  surprise,  at  any 
rate,  may  be  not  wholly  without  excuse.  For 
"social  service"  is  wider  than  home  missions  in 
the  area  of  its  operations;  it  belongs  to  both  the 
home  and  the  foreign  field.  Yet  in  another  sense 
it  is  narrower;  for  while  "home  missions"  may  be 
so  broadly  interpreted  as  to  deal  with  all  classes 
and  all  needs,  "social  service"  has  come  to  be  re- 
stricted in  its  application  to  certain  classes  and 
certain  needs. 

This  service  is  "social"  in  that  it  has  in  view  not 
solely  or  perhaps  chiefly  the  individual,  but  seeks 
the  regeneration  of  the  community,  the  transforma- 
tion of  its  laws,  customs,  and  conditions  of- life. 
It  is  "social"  also,  as  distinguished  from,  though 
by  no  means  opposed  to,  evangelism,  in  that  its 
aim  is  not,  at  least  directly,  spiritual ;  it  is  concerned 
with  the  temporal  and  material  facts  of  life.  It  is 
more  than  philanthropy,  which  proposes  the  relief 
of  distress ;  for  social  service  is  preventive,  radically 
remedial,  and  not  simply  palliative.  It  includes  as 
well  the  work  of  such  diverse  agents  as  the  educator, 
the  temperance  agitator,  the  probation  officer,  the 

191 


192  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

social  settlement  resident,  the  charity  organization, 
prison  reform,  industrial  betterment,  legislation  for 
better  housing,  food,  wages,  and  the  like.  It  deals 
with  society,  regarded  as  a  living  body,  the  welfare 
of  one  of  whose  members  is  the  affair  of  all. 

To  this  social  service  there  is  in  our  day  a  new 
call.  Ages  ago  there  was  an  old  call.  It  was  the 
call  of  primitive  Christianity,  it  was  the  call  of 
Christ.  For  the  thought  of  a  ministry  to  the  bodily 
needs  of  men  is  no  modern  thought;  Jesus  Christ 
fed  and  healed  and  heartened  and  raised  from  the 
dead.  The  thought  of  a  transformed  society  is  no 
new  discovery;  Jesus  Christ  predicted  a  kingdom 
into  which  those  who  believed  in  him  were  to 
enter,  a  kingdom  which  was  a  society  of  his 
brothers  and  which  was  to  be  the  type  and  the 
instrument  of  a  new  and  permanent  social  order, 
permanent  because  just  and  kindly  and  free. 
Society  itself  is  a  divine  institution.  The  social 
instinct  is  a  means  of  grace,  whether  it  be 
manifested  in  family  love  or  friendship  or  fra- 
ternal union.  Love  is  of  God,  all  love.  And  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  a  kingdom  of  love,  love  not 
merely  sentimental,  but  practical ;  love  not  by 
moonlight,  but  by  daylight;  love  in  business,  poli- 
tics, and  social  relations. 

After  the  Protestant  Reformation,  with  its  stress 
upon  faith,  in  the  release  of  the  spirit  from  its  dog- 
matic and  ecclesiastical  shackles,  individualism 
seemed  to  run  riot  in  religion,  and  the  importance 
of  the  spiritual  welfare  obscured  the  fact  that  there 


NEW  CALL  TO  SOCIAL  SERVICE  193 

was  more  to  man  than  a  spirit.  It  is  perhaps  a 
fair  question  whether  the  new  call  to  social  service 
did  not  first  begin  to  find  utterance  through  the 
lips  of  John  Wesley.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  call 
to-day  has  become  more  insistent  than  in  the  eigh- 
teenth or  any  preceding  century. 

Its  strength  and  emphasis  arise  from  a  new  view 
of  man.  The  religious  rights  of  man  were  vindi- 
cated four  centuries  ago.  His  political  rights  have 
been  grudgingly  admitted  during  the  last  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years.  But  the  application  of  that 
religious  and  political  democracy  to  social  and 
industrial  relations  is  yet  far  from  being  completely 
worked  out.  No  fantastic  notions  of  equality  of 
endowment  or  identity  of  opportunity  need  be 
indulged,  but  democracy  must  have  its  way  in  the 
realm  of  economics.  When  Abraham  Lincoln 
complained  of  that  political  party  which  considered 
"the  liberty  of  one  man  to  be  absolutely  nothing 
when  in  conflict  with  another  man's  right  of 
property/'  and  declared  that  he  stood  "for  both  the 
man  and  the  dollar,  but  in  cases  of  conflict,  the  man 
before  the  dollar,"  he  was  the  herald  of  a  wider 
democracy  before  which  the  artificial  barriers  of 
class  and  station  were  bound  to  fall.  The  sweep 
of  this  democratic  spirit  has  made  inevitable  many 
economic  readjustments. 

Corresponding  with  this  higher  estimate  of  man 
as  man,  apart  from  his  trimmings  and  his  trap- 
pings, has  come  a  new  view  of  religion.  Christianity 
has  been   rehumanized,   made  more  ethical,   more 


194  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

practical,  more  imperial.  Jesus  has  been  exalted 
as  Teacher  and  Example.  His  tenderness,  his  sym- 
pathy, his  fellowship  with  the  wants  and  woes  of 
men,  his  universal  and  eternal  humanity  have  been 
disclosed  as  never  before.  And  the  claims  of  his 
religion  to  the  sovereignty  of  all  life,  the  refusal  to 
be  shut  from  any  region  of  thought  or  feeling  or 
action,  have  shown  every  occupation  to  be  holy  and 
every  obligation  to  be  sacred. 

A  new  knowledge  of  the  facts  has  been  diffused. 
The  improved  means  of  transportation  and  com- 
munication, the  increase  of  travel,  the  daily  news- 
paper, the  business  of  turning  the  world  of  incident 
inside  out  for  the  gaze  of  every  beholder,  these 
have  lent  a  new  meaning  to  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
When  before  were  we  next-door  neighbors  to  all  the 
world,  as  now?  When  did  we  ever  know  how  the 
other  half  lives?  Knowledge  may  not  be  power, 
but  it  is  commandment. 

Moreover,  the  facts  themselves  have  changed. 
Not  only  the  knowledge  of  the  situation,  but  the 
situation  is  new.  No  one  would  think  of  claiming 
that  the  conditions  of  living  among  the  poorer  sec- 
tions of  the  population  are  worse  than  a  century 
ago,  but  it  is  unquestionable  that  the  contrast 
between  rich  and  poor  has  been  heightened,  the 
relative  position  of  the  less  favored  is  worse,  and 
the  discontent  and  danger  of  the  situation  have 
therefore  become  more  acute. 

The  industrial  revolution,  growing  from  the  in- 
vention of  the  steam-engine,  and  transferring  the 


NEW  CALL  TO  SOCIAL  SERVICE  195 

workshop  from  the  home  to  the  factory,  has  meant 
concentration  of  wealth  and  accentuation  of  poverty ; 
it  has  been  followed  by  combinations  of  both  labor 
and  capital  into  gigantic  and  powerful  organiza- 
tions; it  has  been  accompanied  by  the  congestion 
of  population  to  an  unprecedented  degree  in  our 
overgrown  and  ill-regulated  cities. 

Think,  for  example,  of  that  so-called  "Lung 
Block"  in  New  York  city,  with  its  two  or  three 
thousand  inhabitants,  seven  hundred  persons  to  the 
acre,  with  forty  cases  of  tuberculosis  to  a  single 
house  in  five  years,  and  with  three  fourths  of  the 
tenement  houses  of  the  block  licensed  to  carry  on 
manufacturing  of  clothes  and  the  like  in  the  infected 
rooms!  Think  of  the  conditions  of  misery  which 
Huxley  years  ago  described  as  the  lot  of  a  large 
percentage  of  the  English  population :  "It  is  a  con- 
dition in  which  the  food,  warmth,  and  clothing 
which  are  necessary  for  the  mere  maintenance  of 
the  functions  of  the  body  in  their  normal  state  can- 
not be  obtained;  in  which  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren are  forced  to  crowd  into  dens  wherein  decency 
is  abolished  and  the  most  ordinary  conditions  of 
healthful  existence  are  impossible  of  attainment; 
in  which  the  pleasures  within  reach  are  reduced  to 
bestiality  and  drunkenness;  in  which  the  pains 
accumulate  at  compound  interest  in  the  shape  of 
starvation,  disease,  stunted  development,  and  moral 
degradation ;  in  which  the  prospect  of  even  steady 
and  honest  industry  is  a  life  of  unsuccessful  battling 
with  hunger,  rounded  by  a  pauper's  grave." 


196  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

It  would  not  appear  that  our  Christian  civiliza- 
tion is  a  very  great  success.  In  so  far  as  it  is  Chris- 
tian, it  is  a  success.  The  trouble  is  that  so  little  of 
it  is  Christianized. 

Happily,  our  day  has  seen  an  awakening  of  in- 
terest in  all  men  and  all  conditions.  There  is  not 
only  a  new  situation,  a  new  knowledge,  but  a  new 
sense  of  responsibility.  Missionary,  philanthropic, 
social,  and  educational  movements  have  been  tak- 
ing rapid  strides.  Of  all  the  signs  of  hope,  the  best  is 
this — that  among  right-minded  men  is  a  stirring 
consciousness  of  their  terrific  obligations.  A  new 
social  conscience  has  been  born.  Men  care,  as  never 
before,  how  the  other  half  lives  and  works,  and,  what 
is  more,  they  propose  to  do  something  about  it. 

Part  of  the  mission  of  Christianity,  in  the  cath- 
olic interpretation  of  it  shared  by  such  men  as  him 
whom  we  honor  to-day,  is  the  diffusion  of  a  new 
spirit  in  the  time,  the  creation  of  an  atmosphere 
that  is  favorable  to  true  religion.  The  removal 
of  temptation,  the  cure  of  disease,  the  relief  of 
poverty,  the  encouragement  of  education,  the  culti- 
vation of  a  social  temper,  the  formation  of  high 
moral  ideals,  the  opening  of  opportunities,  these 
are  all  truly  Christian  works.  It  is  in  fact  true  that 
the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the 
earth,  as  it  is  conceived  in  the  New  Testament — 
the  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy — 
cannot  in  any  real  and  thorough  sense  be  followed 
out  without  running  us  afoul  of  a  host  of  industrial, 
legislative,  and  international  problems. 


NEW  CALL  TO  SOCIAL  SERVICE  197 

It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  social  service  is 
a  legitimate  part  of  the  task  of  religion.  It  is  so 
because  of  the  moral  relations  and  effects  of  physical 
conditions.  The  construction  of  playgrounds  in 
congested  districts  may  mean,  as  it  actually  has  in 
Chicago,  less  business  for  the  juvenile  courts.  Or 
the  needless  death  of  a  poor  trackwalker  may  mean 
the  shame  of  his  widow;  corruption  in  the  streets 
may  mean  bereaved  hearts  and  blighted  homes ;  den- 
sity of  population  may  involve  the  disappearance 
of  decency;  no  parks,  no  museums,  no  wholesome 
amusements  may  mean  crowded  saloons  and  burned- 
out  lives.  If  child  labor  stunts  the  joyfulness,  the 
strength,  the  intelligence  of  those  on  whom  the 
Republic  is  to  depend,  can  any  Christian  citizen 
be  indifferent  ?  We  have  not  yet  comprehended  the 
full  force  of  environment  on  character.  Sin  may 
produce  disease  and  poverty,  but  poverty  and  disease 
also  help  to  perpetuate  sin.  The  drunken  sot  has 
more  than  a  weak  or  vicious  will  to  account  for  the 
wretched  condition.  And  we  must  come  to  see 
that  if  it  is  Christian,  as  all  admit,  to  cure  the 
world's  woes,  then  it  is  Christian  to  prevent  them, 
and  in  addition  much  less  expensive,  much  more 
sensible.  "Sanitary  regulations,"  said  Frederick 
W.  Robertson  long  ago,  "may  be  as  religious  as  a 
miracle."  "To  man  a  lifeboat  may  be  more  he- 
roic, but  it  at  the  best  only  mitigates  a  disaster; 
the  prevision  that  mounts  a  fogbell  on  Inchcape 
Rock  is  less  showy  a  virtue,  but  infinitely  more 
useful." 


198  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

If  it  is  Christian  to  be  partial,  it  is  Christian  to 
be  thorough.  If  it  is  Christian  to  build  hospitals, 
it  is  Christian  to  form  anti-tuberculosis  leagues.  If 
it  is  Christian  to  save  the  drunkard,  it  is  Christian 
to  close  the  saloons.  If  it  is  Christian  to  demand 
legislation  against  the  saloon,  the  brothel,  the 
gambling  house,  it  is  Christian  to  enforce  it  and 
to  compel  others  to  enforce  it.  Whatever  affects 
human  welfare,  whatever  in  conditions  of  life  has 
an  influence  on  character  and  conduct,  is  surely  of 
consequence  to  the  Christian.  If  people,  as  Jack 
London  describes  them,  have  but  one  small  room 
for  a  family,  and  in  that  room  sleep  and  dress  and 
eat  and  wash  and  work  and,  if  very  poor,  keep  the 
body  of  their  dead  for  days  or  even  weeks  on 
bed  or  table  or  shelf — such  a  room,  as  he  protests, 
"is  not  home  but  horror."  "When  a  father  and 
mother,"  to  quote  him  again,  "live  with  three  or 
four  children  in  a  room  where  the  children  take 
turn  about  in  sitting  up  to  drive  the  rats  away  from 
the  sleepers,  when  those  children  never  have  enough 
to  eat  and  are  preyed  upon  and  made  miserable  and 
weak  by  swarming  vermin,  the  sort  of  men  and 
women  the  survivors  will  make  can  readily  be  im- 
agined." What  should  we  do,  my  brothers, 
what  chance  should  we  have  if  kept  at  exhaust- 
ing toil  for  starvation  wages,  with  poor  nutrition, 
surrounded  by  drinking,  swearing,  fighting,  and 
filth?  Should  we  want  a  change  in  circumstances? 
Should  we  not  hail  as  good  news  from  heaven  some 
word  and  act  of  hope  and  of  help? 


NEW  CALL  TO  SOCIAL  SERVICE  199 

Is  it  well  that  while  we  range  with  Science,  glorying  in 

the  Time, 
City  children  soak  and  blacken  soul  and  sense  in  city 

slime  ? 
There   among   the   glooming   alleys   Progress   halts   on 

palsied  feet, 
Crime  and  hunger  cast  our  maidens  by  the  thousand  on 

the  street. 

There   the   master   scrimps  his  haggard  seamstress  of 

her  daily  bread ; 
There  a  single  sordid  attic  holds  the  living  and  the  dead ; 
There  the  smoldering  fire  of  fever  creeps   across  the 

rotted  floor, 
And  the  crowded  couch  of  incest,  in  the  warrens  of  the 

poor. 

And  Jack  London,  when  he  had  dwelt  with  the 
People  of  the  Abyss  in  East  London,  was  right  in 
his  indignant  cry :  "Man  cannot  be  worked  worse 
than  a  horse  is  worked,  and  be  housed  and  fed  as 
a  pig  is  housed  and  fed,  and  at  the  same  time  have 
clean  and  wholesome  ideals  and  aspirations."  For 
right  character  and  conduct  right  conditions  must 
be  created. 

This  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the 
unfortunate  brother,  for  giving  him  at  least  his 
chance  at  decency,  has  found  expression  in  a  thou- 
sand ways.  There  is  John  E.  Gunckel,  in  Toledo, 
with  his  six  thousand  and  more  newsboys;  there  is 
Judge  Ben  Lindsey  in  Denver  with  his  loyal  raga- 
muffins, carrying  the  city  election  for  him  against 
both  political  parties ;  there  are  the  "Big  Brothers" 
in  New  York,  looking  after  that  ninety  per  cent  of 


200  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

strayed  boys  who  have  been  merely  careless  or 
neglected.  There  are  the  institutional  churches,  the 
broadening  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the 
social  settlements,  the  innumerable  societies  for 
agitation  and  uplift — all  growing  from  the  new 
situation  and  the  new  sense  of  responsibility. 

Into  the  long  warfare  to  be  waged  against  evil 
in  its  multitudinous  forms,  our  generation  is  sum- 
moned, as  by  a  clarion  call.  And  if  there  is  any  time 
when  ear  and  eye  should  be  open,  when  visions 
should  come  quickest,  clearest,  most  golden,  it  is 
youth.  If  there  is  any  spot  where  such  visions 
should  glow  and  allure,  it  is  the  college,  the  place 
which  stands,  not  first  for  wealth  or  brains  or  train- 
ing, but  for  service.  In  our  colleges  we  prepare  for 
leadership ;  but  we  covet  no  intellectual  aristocracy. 
Our  leaders  in  government,  in  church,  in  finance, 
are  to  be  the  servants  of  the  people.  Their  idealism 
is  to  be  so  fine  and  true  that  it  consorts  with  hu- 
mility. From  the  place  of  privilege  they  are  to  go 
to  the  place  of  opportunity.  Their  advantages  are 
to  be  translated  into  blessings  for  the  less  fortunate. 
Like  the  Lord,  who,  knowing  that  he  came  from 
God  and  went  to  God,  rose  and  girded  himself  with 
a  towel  and  washed  the  feet  of  his  disciples,  those 
who  are  gifted  and  exalted  are  to  seek  greatness 
through  service.  To  the  scholar  comes  the  special 
obligation  to  blend  sanity  with  enthusiasm,  to  give 
wise  direction  and  fervent  leadership  to  the  social 
movements  of  our  day. 

It  should  be  added  that  if  history  means  any- 


NEW  CALL  TO  SOCIAL  SERVICE  201 

thing,  that  call  should  come  with  its  full  meaning 
and  force  in  a  Methodist  college.  Mr.  J.  R.  Green, 
in  his  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  after 
noticing  the  effect  of  the  Methodist  revival  upon 
religion  and  morals,  goes  on  to  say:  "A  yet  nobler 
result  of  the  religious  revival  was  the  steady  attempt, 
which  has  never  ceased  from  that  day  to  this,  to 
remedy  the  guilt,  the  physical  suffering,  the  social 
degradation  of  the  profligate  and  the  poor."  He 
adds :  "A  passionate  impulse  of  human  sympathy 
with  the  wronged  and  afflicted  raised  hospitals, 
endowed  charities,  built  churches,  sent  missionaries 
to  the  heathen." 

If  the  broad  and  balanced  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity which  was  in  the  heart  of  early  Methodism 
is  not  to  be  disgraced  by  latter-day  developments, 
then  the  rising  generation  of  Methodists,  the  stu- 
dents in  our  Methodist  colleges,  must  rally  in  the 
new  crusade  for  the  deliverance  of  man — the  whole 
man — from  ignorance  and  misery  and  oppression. 
The  new  call  to  social  service  must  echo  through 
the  halls  Of  learning,  and  the  chiefest  must  become 
minister  to  the  least. 

These  things  shall  be !  a  loftier  race 

Than  e'er  the  world  hath  known  shall  rise, 

With  flame  of  freedom  in  their  souls 
And  light  of  knowledge  in  their  eyes. 

They  shall  be  gentle,  brave,  and  strong 
To  spill  no  drop  of  blood,  but  dare 

All  that  may  plant  man's  lordship  firm 
On  earth,  and  fire,  and  sea,  and  air. 


202  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

Nation  with  nation,  land  with  land, 
Inarmed  shall  live  as  comrades  free; 

In  every  heart  and  brain  shall  throb 
The  pulse  of  one  fraternity. 

Man  shall  love  man  with  heart  as  pure 
And  fervent  as  the  young-eyed  joys 

Who  chant  their  heavenly  lays  before 
God's  face  with  undiscordant  noise. 

New  arts  shall  bloom  of  loftier  mold, 
And  mightier  music  thrill  the  skies, 

And  every  life  shall  be  a  song, 
When  all  the  earth  is  paradise. 

In  the  day  of  the  triumph  it  will  be  worth  while 
to  say,  "I  was  there." 


VI 

THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER 

It  is  a  common  error  that  technical  education  is 
of  recent  origin.  On  the  contrary,  the  technical 
school  is  older  than  the  college  of  liberal  arts.  The 
University  of  Salerno  began  as  a  school  of  medicine, 
the  University  of  Paris  as  a  school  of  theology ;  the 
University  of  Padua,  famous  for  the  lectures  of 
Galileo,  was  principally  a  school  of  law,  even  at  his 
coming.  "A  leading  purpose  of  the  founders  of 
Harvard  College,"  says  their  latest  bulletin,  "was 
to  advance  learning  and  to  perpetuate  it  to  posterity ; 
dreading  to  leave  an  illiterate  ministry  to  the 
churches  when  our  present  ministers  shall  lie  in 
the  dust.  Accordingly,  for  two  generations  the 
college  was  virtually  a  theological  school  in  its 
curriculum  and  dominant  influences,  and  in  the  pur- 
poses of  its  students."  Hence  its  motto,  Pro 
Christo  et  Ecclesia.  The  same  is  true  of  most 
American  colleges,  but  like  Harvard  they  have  been 
invaded  and  conquered  by  the  secular  spirit;  trans- 
formed in  curriculum,  in  dominant  influences,  and 
in  the  purposes  of  their  students.  They  now  main- 
tain themselves  partly  by  acquired  momentum,  and 
partly  by  the  belief  that  they  furnish  a  training  of 
the  mind  and  a  culture  of  the  soul,  adequate  and 

necessary  to  every  fruitful  life.     This  reverses  the 

203 


204  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

ancient  order.  The  college  of  liberal  arts  which  at 
Padua  included  the  faculties  of  theology,  medicine, 
and  philosophy  has  dwindled  to  the  latter  only;  it 
is  a  new  and  much  bewildered  institution  struggling 
to  adapt  itself  to  a  new  and  highly  complex  environ- 
ment. It  no  longer  trains  ministers  and  doctors; 
nor  does  it  pretend  to.  It  engages,  so  we  are  told, 
in  a  nobler  enterprise,  to  wit,  the  development  of 
perfect  manhood. 

Now,  if  it  rightly  measures  the  size  of  this  tre- 
mendous job  and  chooses  the  efficient  means  for 
doing  it,  we  shall  all  with  one  accord  agree  that  the 
college  of  liberal  arts  is  essential  for  the  training 
of  the  missionary.  For  the  first  and  indispensable 
requisite  for  him  is  manhood,  the  kind  of  manhood 
developed  here  fifty  years  ago,  the  kind  of  manhood 
we  have  met  to  acknowledge  humbly  and  with  grati- 
tude to  God ;  manhood  like  that  of  Thoburn  and  of 
Grenfell,  like  that  of  Moffat  and  of  Livingstone, 
like  that  of  Toynbee  and  of  Denison ;  manhood  that 
proves  its  virtue  alike  in  the  villages  of  India  or  in 
the  wilds  of  Africa,  in  the  East  End  of  London  or 
on  the  coasts  of  Labrador. 

This  is  my  first  remark.  I  venture  to  say  that  our 
beloved  friend,  Bishop  Thoburn,  even  here  in  the 
presence  of  his  cherished  Alma  Mater,  will  agree 
with  both  my  first  and  second  when  I  insist  that  back 
of  the  best  training  of  any  college  should  be  the 
training  of  the  Christian  home.  Not  that  one  un- 
happily deprived  of  it  may  not  find  its  best  possible 
substitute  in  a  Christian  college;  on  the  contrary, 


TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER  205 

it  is  the  avowed  purpose  and  precious  privilege  of 
the  Christian  college  to  supply  this  terrible  lack. 
But  happy  are  the  young  men  and  women  who 
enter  college  clothed  with  the  prayers  of  their  par- 
ents as  with  a  protecting  garment,  and  beckoned 
forward  to  noble  achievement  by  heavenly  visions 
that  came  to  them  in  their  homes  and  by  divine 
voices  familiar  to  them  in  their  childhood.  "Your 
young  men  shall  see  visions."  What  proof  of  the 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  could  be  more  splendid? 
How  desolate  the  fireside  where  none  appear !  How 
cheerless  the  college  from  which  they  have  faded, 
"leaving  not  a  rack  behind" ! 

Much  has  been  written  in  recent  years  of  moral 
and  religious  education.  Here,  in  the  presence  of 
a  product  of  earlier  methods,  I  may  be  forgiven  for 
asking,  have  we  not  quit  the  business  for  the  joy 
of  discussing  some  supposed  improvements  ?  When 
these  newly  planted  trees  have  borne  their  fruit  it 
will  be  time  enough  to  boast  of  their  superiority  to 
the  ancient  orchards.  But,  change  our  methods  as 
we  may,  we  shall  never  escape  the  fact  upon  which 
I  am  now  insisting,  that  the  place  to  behold  the 
visions  of  God  is  first  of  all  the  consecrated  home, 
and  next  to  that  the  consecrated  school.  When 
these  visions  may  come,  what  shape  they  may  take, 
who  can  tell?  Biography  abounds  in  surprises. 
The  lad  Cavour  had  a  vision  of  himself  as  prime 
minister  of  Italy  when  as  yet  Italy  was  sneered  at 
as  a  geographical  expression.  The  boy  Melloni 
rises  before  the  dawn  and  watches  the  sun  rising 


206  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

behind  the  hills  of  his  native  city  and  afterward 
expounds  the  secrets  of  radiant  energy.  The  chief 
thing-  is  the  mood  of  expectation,  the  watching, 
listening  attitude,  that  young  people  entering  upon 
life  should  expect  visions,  should  be  ready  to  obey 
them  when  heaven  shall  open  above  their  heads. 
There  is  a  practical  atheism  rife  in  the  surrounding 
atmosphere .  more  dangerous  than  any  other — an 
atheism  that  excludes  the  thought  of  God  from  our 
momentous  decisions.  It  pervades  the  home  and 
the  school.  Children  grow  accustomed  to  this 
attitude  of  parents  and  of  teachers.  Questions  of 
supreme  importance  are  discussed  and  determined 
in  their  hearing  as  though  there  were  no  God  whose 
will  should  be  considered.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
reverence  the  piety  that  covets  divine  guidance  and 
expects  "the  light  that  is  sown  for  the  righteous." 

Now,  any  training  that  fails  to  develop  this  at- 
titude of  expectation,  this  confident  looking  for 
divine  guidance  and  divine  help,  develops  an  imper- 
fect, nay,  more,  a  very  defective  manhood,  either 
an  arrogant  Superman,  the  new  name  for  the  old 
Vampire,  or  a  timid,  inefficient  half-man  whose 
noblest  deeds  are  empty  dreams. 

This  holds  true  for  any  kind  of  life;  the  nobler, 
though,  a  man's  ideals,  the  sublimer  his  enterprises, 
the  more  imperative  this  attitude,  this  mood  be- 
comes. It  is  the  very  mind  of  Christ,  and  hence 
its  supreme  importance  in  the  training  of  the 
missionary. 

Another    feature    of   his    training    should   be    a 


TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER  207 

mastery  of  the  present  evidences  of  the  power  of 
the  gospel.  Students  of  a  former  generation  were 
fed  on  Butler's  Analogy.  It  was  and  is  a  great 
book,  especially  for  those  that  inwardly  digested  it. 
Paley's  Natural  Theology  and  Paley's  Evidences 
were  likewise  relied  upon  to  dispel  the  doubts  that 
they  created.  But  our  age  demands  another  kind 
of  argument.  It  demands  of  every  proposition 
experimental  proof.  Hence  the  evidential  value  of 
missionary  history,  missionary  history  in  its  widest 
and  sublimest  range,  the  unfolding  of  the  life  of 
Christ  from  Bethlehem  to  the  ends  of  the  earth; 
not  the  history  of  the  development  of  theological 
speculation,  but  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  human 
souls  and  human  society  by  the  power  of  a  present 
Saviour;  not  the  history  of  ecclesiastical  systems, 
but  the  story  of  heroic  evangelists  struggling  suc- 
cessfully to  transform  an  environment  invariably 
and  desperately  hostile — history  brought  down  to 
date,  full  of  the  outpourings  of  a  present  Pentecost. 
Equally  important  is  the  training  in  brotherly 
kindness  in  the  full  sweep  of  Christ's  ideal.  Bold 
indeed  were  the  words  of  Paul,  comprehending  in 
one  immortal  sentence  Jew  and  Gentile,  Greek  and 
Barbarian,  bold  and  comprehensive  as  the  mighty 
prayer  of  Jesus :  "Thy  will  be  done  in  the  earth  as 
it  is  in  heaven !"  How  narrow,  for  instance,  is  our 
present  teaching  of  history!  The  Orient  is  better 
known  to  our  merchants  and  our  railroad  magnates 
than  to  our  college  professors,  who  if  concerned 
with    it   at  all   are  interested   more   in   its   ancient 


208  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

literature  than  in  its  present  life.  Africa,  whose 
northern  coast  has  been  the  scene  of  many  a  bloody 
struggle;  whose  mysteries  have  enticed  explorers 
since  the  day  that  Julius  Caesar  longed  to  find  the 
sources  of  the  Nile — Africa  interests  the  student 
chiefly  because  of  ancient  Carthage  or  the  Egypt  of 
the  Pharaohs.  The  Africa  of  the  twentieth  century, 
like  contemporary  China,  has  not  yet  found  its 
proper  place  in  our  curricula.  The  sudden  splendor 
of  Japanese  achievement  has  dazed  rather  than  en- 
lightened us;  we  can  discuss  most  learnedly  the 
variations  in  ancient  manuscripts,  but  we  are 
blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times  and  the  urgent 
demands  of  a  changing  order.  In  one  of  our  great 
universities  which  offers  eighteen  courses  of  history 
under  six  different  teachers,  all  that  relates  to  the 
Orient  is  included  in  a  course  on  world-politics  from 
1878  to  the  present  day,  an  elective  which  occupies 
two  hours  a  week  for  one  semester! 
We  still  sing  occasionally, 

"To  serve  the  present  age, 
My  calling  to  fulfill." 

How,  pray,  are  we  to  serve  the  present  age  if  we 
never  study  it — if  the  children  of  this  world  in 
their  pursuit  of  wealth  know  vastly  more  about  it 
than  the  children  of  light?  if  we  are  not  only  igno- 
rant of  it,  but  misinformed  about  it,  if  we  are  the 
victims  of  prejudice  and  carefully  cultivated  racial 
hostility,  not  to  say  ignoble  fear,  a  fear  condensed 
in  phrases  like  "the  yellow  peril"? 


TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER  209 

We  are  a  strange  people,  we  Americans.  No- 
where is  the  alien  welcomed  more  cordially  by  the 
politician,  the  capitalist,  the  labor  leader;  they  can 
use  him,  each  in  his  own  way.  Yet  nowhere  is  the 
prejudice  against  the  alien  so  deeply  rooted  as  in 
our  cultured  classes.  We  have  in  Chicago  a  club 
known  as  the  "Lovers  of  Italy,"  but  a  club  of  lovers 
of  the  Italians  would  be  rather  hard  to  organize. 
We  eulogize  Kosciusko  and  Pulaski,  but  we  do  not 
love  the  Poles;  we  speak  eloquently  of  John  Huss 
and  Comenius,  but  we  do  not  adore  the  Bohemians ; 
Socrates  we  still  compare  to  Jesus,  but  the  modern 
Greek  we  treat  with  disdain  and  even  loathing.  Not 
very  long  ago  a  college  professor,  speaking  of  the 
southern  Italians  with  contempt,  as  a  kind  of  human 
garbage,  was  amazed  to  hear  my  recital  of  their 
virtues  and  the  wrongs  that  they  have  endured  for 
generations.  History  used  to  be  called  philosophy 
teaching  by  example.  That  implies  a  knowledge 
of  contemporary  conditions  at  home  and  abroad, 
for  to  these  conditions  the  teaching  must  be  applied ! 
Of  what  avail  our  knowledge  of  the  past  if  we  are 
ignorant  of  the  present,  our  knowledge  of  Athens 
or  Rome  or  even  of  Jerusalem  if  we  are  blind  to  the 
social  structure  of  New  York  and  Calcutta,  of  San 
Francisco  and  Peking? 

This  leads  naturally  to  my  next  suggestion.  A 
proper  training  for  the  missionary  requires  that  he 
know  experimentally  and  theoretically  the  essence 
of  the  gospel.  I  objected  recently  to  a  teacher  of 
rhetoric    that    his    productions    had    neither    com- 


2io  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

mercial  nor  literary  value.  The  many  would  not 
buy  them,  and  a  fit  audience,  though  few,  could  not 
be  found  for  them.  I  should  make  a  similar  ob- 
jection to  a  teacher  of  astronomy  who  could  not 
manage  a  telescope.  Our  age  is  growing  dread- 
fully intolerant  of  inefficiency,  of  knowledge  of 
the  mouth  as  distinguished  from  knowledge  of  the 
hand  and  the  brain  and  the  heart.  We  are  through 
with  creeds  and  catechisms  as  an  end  in  themselves 
— they  are  relics  of  mediaeval  training;  but  we  are 
not  through  with  definite  and  workable  conceptions 
of  a  life  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  for  these  corre- 
spond to  the  scientific  truths  from  which  the  mir- 
acles of  modern  material  progress  are  derived.  The 
world,  however,  the  unevangelized  world  at  home 
and  abroad,  will  not  be  argued  into  these  concep- 
tions unless  and  until  it  sees  them  in  triumphant 
operation.  In  the  byways  of  Chicago,  among  the 
fishermen  of  Labrador,  among  the  famine-stricken 
of  India  or  of  China,  it  is  the  same  demand :  Show 
us  the  miracles  wrought  through  the  faith  that 
works  by  love.  You  can  derive  a  better  creed,  a 
better  conception  of  Christ,  from  the  conduct  of 
David  Livingstone  than  the  Nicene  Fathers  ob- 
tained with  all  their  subtle  distinctions;  a  creed 
that  does  what  they  tried  but  failed  to  do — lifts 
Christ  up  to  God  by  showing  his  actual  relation  to 
human  sin  and  human  suffering.  I  have  tried  to  be 
a  scholar.  Such  was  the  vision  vouchsafed  to  me, 
and  to  it  I  have  not  been  altogether  disobedient.  I 
have  grown  gray  in  the  study  and  in  the  classroom. 


TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER  211 

But  my  dear  friend  Thoburn  knows  more  of  the 
real  meaning  and  the  real  power  of  the  gospel  than 
books  could  teach  me,  for  in  the  beginning  of  his 
beautiful  and  fruitful  life  he  had  a  conception  of 
Jesus,  clearer,  simpler,  richer,  and  more  valuable 
than  mine,  while  in  applying  it  to  human  needs  he 
verified  it  and  exemplified  it  with  the  glow  of  his 
energetic  mind  and  the  rich  red  blood  of  his  con- 
secrated heart.  Or  take  the  case  of  Dr.  Grenfell: 
see  him  verifying  his  conception  of  the  living  Christ 
with  his  boat  and  his  hospital ;  see  him  dying  daily 
on  the  stormy  North  Atlantic  to  prove  the  eternal 
truth  that  he  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath 
the  witness  in  himself,  Christ  within  him,  the  wis- 
dom of  God  and  the  power  of  God.  Especially 
should  the  theological  school  cherish  this  ideal. 
What  are  the  refinements  of  exegesis,  what  are  the 
riches  of  historical  research,  what  are  the  delvings 
of  systematic  theology  if  they  bring  not  the  knowl- 
edge that  is  power? 

I  have  carefully  avoided  questions  of  detail,  pre- 
ferring to  speak  plainly  of  underlying  principles. 
In  fact,  the  history  of  missions  shows  how  hard  it 
is  to  anticipate  the  emergencies  of  missionary  life. 
Think  of  Alexander  Duff  teaching  the  English  al- 
phabet to  Hindu  children ;  think  of  Livingstone  and 
his  explorations ;  think  of  Gamewell  and  his  engi- 
neering skill  employed  against  the  Boxers ;  think  of 
Grenfell  and  his  hospitals,  and  then  frame  if  you 
can  an  adequate  plan  for  missionary  education !  To 
the  missionary  no  knowledge,  no  skill,  no  aptitude, 


212  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

no  form  of  genius  comes  amiss.  The  chief  thing  is 
to  bring  every  thought  into  captivity  to  Jesus  Christ, 
to  be  always  and  everywhere  alert  about  the 
Father's  business.  Would  you  not,  some  one  asks, 
train  him  beforehand  in  the  language  of  the  people 
to  whom  he  is  going?  There  are,  my  dear  friend, 
tongues  and  dialects  innumerable.  Even  highly 
developed  languages  like  German  and  Italian  are 
one  thing  to  the  cultivated  and  another  to  the  people 
dwelling  in  particular  regions.  I  find  myself,  for 
instance,  baffled  by  the  Neapolitan  dialect  which  I 
encounter  in  certain  most  valuable  Italian  writings. 
While  ready  to  admit  the  possibility  of  acquiring 
certain  languages  here  at  home,  I  should  neverthe- 
less maintain  that  a  living  language  can  be  most 
easily  and  most  thoroughly  mastered  where  it  is 
spoken  daily  and  where  its  literature  is  produced. 
If  we  had  a  department  of  comparative  psychology, 
that  is,  a  department  devoted  to  the  study  of  the 
human  mind  as  it  appears  in  racial  diversities,  I 
would  certainly  urge  the  missionary  worker  to 
make  the  most  of  it.  For  he  should  know  and  be 
able  to  detect  the  universal  properties  of  human 
nature  which  are  discoverable  underneath  all  its 
changing  aspects;  he  should  be  trained  to  a  quick 
perception  of  that  which  is  permanent  and  that 
which  is  transient,  of  that  which  is  fundamental  in 
human  character  and  that  which  is  due  to  the 
peculiar  environment  which  has  conditioned  its 
development.  Such  study  should  be  pursued  not 
with  reference  to  a  particular  tribe  or  nation,  but 


TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER  213 

in  a  broad  and  careful  manner,  so  that  the  student 
may  apply  the  training  that  it  gives  him  anywhere 
on  the  round  globe. 

Now  let  me  file  a  caveat.  The  student  of  Orient 
or  Occident  must  beware  of  shop-worn  and  mis- 
leading phrases,  as,  for  instance,  Chinese  uniform- 
ity, or  the  slums  of  New  York ;  he  must  beware,  too, 
of  misconceptions  easily  derived  from  impressionist 
writers  who  display  their  own  poor  interiors  rather 
than  the  characteristics  of  the  races  that  they  depict 
or  of  the  literature  whose  surface  they  have 
skimmed.  The  life  of  a  neighboring  nation  is  easily 
misconceived;  and  such  misconceptions  lead  fre- 
quently to  war.  How  difficult,  therefore,  to  under- 
stand the  life  of  a  people,  remote  in  space  and  alien 
in  thought,  in  manners,  in  religion.  Why,  there 
are  people  in  Evanston,  as  I  happen  to  know,  whose 
notions  of  the  foreign  populations  in  Chicago  are 
shamefully  and  wickedly  grotesque! 

The  law  of  achievement  is  everywhere  the  same. 
Know  beforehand  what  you  are  aiming  at;  its 
inward  nature,  rather  than  the  outward  conditions 
that  you  may  peradventure  find.  An  engineer  must 
master  first  the  invariable  principles  common  to 
all  engineering,  afterward  the  particular  problem 
set  before  him.  If  he  cannot  overcome  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains,  surely  he  can  never  build  a  road 
across  the  Himalaya  ranges ;  if  he  could  not  get 
over  or  under  the  Monongahela,  he  will  never  get 
beneath  the  Ganges ;  if  he  could  not  develop  elec- 
tricity from   a  mountain   stream,  he  would  never 


214  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

get  it  from  the  falls  of  Niagara  or  the  cataracts  of 
the  Nile. 

Fundamentally  the  missionary  problem,  like  the 
engineering  problem,  is  everywhere  the  same.  The 
laws  of  spiritual  energy,  like  those  of  physical 
energy,  never  change.  Conditions,  on  the  other 
hand,  vary  with  time  and  space.  The  Rome  of  to- 
day differs  from  the  Rome  in  which  Paul  preached, 
who  would  be  astonished  to  see  the  present  Antioch, 
and  would  find  strange  difficulties  in  California  or 
in  China.  Conditions,  therefore,  must  be  con- 
quered as  they  are  met.  It  helps  certainly  to  see 
the  great  apostle  meeting  and  overcoming  the  op- 
positions of  his  world ;  so,  too,  it  helps  to  study  the 
conduct  of  every  missionary  conqueror  who  has 
grappled  with  a  hostile  environment.  As  the  study 
of  campaigns  may  help  a  commanding  general,  as  the 
study  of  great  constructions  may  help  an  engineer,  so 
may  these  examples,  while  concentrating  his  thought 
and  purpose  upon  the  immutable  principles  of  the 
gospel  and  their  application  to  universal  needs,  at  the 
same  time  teach  the  young  missionary  how  to  free 
his  mind  from  delusions,  how  to  strip  his  soul  of 
prejudice  and  conceit,  and  how  to  develop  the  ability 
to  see  things  as  they  really  are,  which  is  the  very  eye 
of  science.  He  may  thus  learn  to  measure  the  depth 
and  the  height  and  the  breadth  of  Paul's  tremendous 
exhortation  to  look  not  at  the  seen  and  the  tran- 
sient, but  at  the  unseen  and  the  permanent.  Fixing 
his  eyes  upon  the  invisible,  he  will  purge  them  of 
error  and  misunderstanding;  he  will  learn  to  reduce 


TRAINING  OF  THE  WORKER  215 

afflictions  and  obstacles  to  their  proper  size;  he  will 
be  quick  to  detect  opportunities,  to  find  the  rem- 
nants of  the  divine  amid  the  ruins  of  the  human 
nature,  and  as  the  angels,  who  when  sent  on  mighty 
errands  renew  their  strength  and  quicken  their 
intelligence  in  the  light  of  God's  countenance,  so 
will  he  recruit  his  energies  of  mind  and  heart  in  the 
radiance  of  that  eternal  truth  which  makes  us  free 
and  overcomes  the  world. 


VII 

DISCUSSION 
DR.    CAMDEN   M     COBERN 

One  question  has  been  suggested  constantly  dur- 
ing this  Jubilee — how  does  the  modern  college  com- 
pare in  the  work  it  does  with  the  old  college  which 
gave  Bishop  Thoburn  to  the  world? 

Of  course,  the  Bishop  may  not  be  a  college 
product  altogether.  Some  men  become  leaders  even 
though  they  have  entirely  lacked  college  training. 
Though  both  Paul  and  this  modern  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles  were  college  men,  it  is  safe  to  suspect  that 
they  would  have  been  heard  from  even  though  they 
had  lacked  this  advantage.  It  is  also  well  to  re- 
member that  Gamaliel  had  only  one  disciple  of  this 
caliber,  and  that  the  Allegheny  of  half  a  century 
ago  put  out  few  graduates  like  this  man  whom  we 
are  now  honoring. 

However,  I  think  every  candid  investigator  must 
acknowledge  that  in  at  least  one  direction  the  old  ^ 
college  was  superior  to  the  average  modern  college 
in  the  United  States.  The  old-time  college  had  one 
chief  aim :  to  turn  out  men,  men  of  power  and  Chris- 
tian character.  Too  many  of  the  modern  colleges 
and  universities,  especially  the  larger  ones,  have 
changed  the  emphasis.  They  seek  to  turn  out 
mathematical  sharks,   philosophical   specialists,  sci- 

216 


DISCUSSION  217 

entific  investigators,  or  it  may  be  physical  ath- 
letes. Is  that  what  a  college  is  for?  A  pagan 
college  could  do  that.  The  old  Egyptians  and 
Babylonians  were  experts  in  mathematics  and  had 
quite  as  much  skill  in  engineering  as  some  modern 
Bachelors  of  Science.  Most  of  our  professors  of 
philosophy  would  hesitate  to  cUim  superiority  in 
mental  acuteness  to  Plato  or  Aristotle.  Even  our 
literary  men  are  too  modest  to  claim  that  they  are 
sending  out  many  students  superior  to  Cicero  or 
Horace  or  Vergil  or  Homer;  while  in  athletics  we 
still  look  back  for  our  ideal  to  the  Olympic  games. 
I  believe  in  athletics,  and  I  yield  to  no  one  in  my 
reverence  for  exact  science  and  minute  scholarship ; 
yet  it  seems  to  me  in  this  Christian  twentieth  century 
the  main  thing  aimed  at  should  be  the  symmetrical 
development  of  the  whole  man,  putting  the  telescope 
to  his  eye  so  that  he  can  see  the  wide  fields  of 
knowledge,  fitting  him  to  use  his  full  powers,  devel- 
oping in  him  high  ideals  of  Christian  character  and 
inspiring  him  for  leadership  and  world  service. 
Neither  Paul  nor  Wesley  could  have  been  a  heavy- 
weight at  football.  Neither  John  nor  Peter  had 
much  of  a  library,  and  their  college  course  was  short 
and  there  was  but  one  teacher  in  the  faculty;  but 
these  men  had  training  which  fitted  them  to  be 
reformers,  thinkers,  world  movers.  That  college 
is  a  failure  from  a  Christian  standpoint  which 
sends  out  first-rate  scholars  and  fourth-rate  men. 

The  old  college  was  distinctly  and  confessedly 
religious.     It  thought  that  was  the  reason  it  was 


218  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

most  needed;  it  is  the  reason  the  small  Christian 
college  is  most  needed  to-day.  It  is  only  in  such 
schools  that  the  students  can  be  known  as  individ- 
uals, and  individually  guided,  developed,  and  in- 
spired to  their  best.  A  well-known  president  of  an 
influential  state  university  at  a  great  educational 
meeting  in  Philadelphia  recently  urged  the  necessity 
of  appointing  in  each  large  school  a  "Dean  of  Man- 
ners and  Morals,"  so  that  such  schools  could  be  as 
safe  as  the  smaller  institutions.  It  cannot  be  done 
that  way.  This  work  of  character-making  cannot 
be  delegated  to  a  "Dean  of  Manners  and  Morals." 
Each  member  of  the  faculty  and  the  whole  tradi- 
tion of  the  school  ought  to  be  committed  to  this  as 
the  chief  work  of  the  college — to  make  men.  The 
whole  system  ought  to  tend  to  this  supreme  aim. 

Within  the  last  two  months  I  have  sent  notes 
to  a  score  of  large  universities  asking  what  propor- 
tion of  the  men  in  the  school  of  liberal  arts  expected 
to  enter  special  religious  work,  such  as  the  ministry, 
missionary  work,  social  settlement,  or  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  work.  Most  of  these  schools 
could  not  even  guess  at  an  answer.  They  knew  whq 
were  interested  in  football,  but  did  not  know  who 
were  interested  in  these  big  things.  They  were  sur- 
prised that  anyone  should  expect  them  to  know! 
When  they  did  estimate  the  number,  the  percentage 
was  so  small  as  to  make  everyone  concerned 
ashamed.  The  fact  in  the  case  is  that  a  college 
does  what  it  aims  to  do.  It  emphasizes  that  which 
is  its  chief  interest.     What  a  college  does  with  its 


DISCUSSION  219 

students  depends  largely  on  the  ideals  of  the  college 
and  its  faculty.  That  is  the  reason  why  the  great 
world  leaders  in  religious  and  philanthropic  work 
have  come  from  Christian  colleges,  and  an  immense 
proportion  of  them  from  small  colleges. 

DR.   J.   J.    WALLACE 

Mr.  President  and  Friends:  I  had  expected  to 
give  that  portion  of  your  time  and  power  of  atten- 
tion which  might  remain  unexhausted  at  this  junc- 
ture to  my  colleague,  Dr.  Charles  M.  Stuart,  editor 
of  the  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate,  whose 
paper  you  do  not  always  have  with  you  as  you  have 
the  Pittsburg  Advocate.  But  since  he  is  not  yet 
present  I  hasten  to  say  what  is  on  my  heart. 

It  would  argue  a  singular  lack  of  feeling  of  the 
right  sort  if  one  should  find  himself  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  this  celebration.  It 
would  betray  a  lack  of  judgment  to  utter  a  word 
out  of  harmony  with  what  has  been  here  spoken. 
Yet  this  is,  as  we  all  realize,  a  rare  event,  a  unique 
occasion.  You  have  been  saying  here  what  is  or- 
dinarily reserved  to  be  said  when  a  great  and  good 
man  has  been  translated  to  heaven.  We  hope  that 
in  his  kindness  to  us  God  will  long  delay  the  trans- 
lation of  Bishop  Thoburn,  and  we  have  the  con- 
fidence to  say  to  him  these  things  which  we  usually 
say  about  other  men  when  their  ears  are  closed  to 
our  voices,  not  alone  because  he  is  worthy  in  char- 
acter and  achievement  for  this  distinction,  but  also 
because  we  feel  sure  that  the  simplicity  of  his  faith, 


220  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

the  sanity  of  his  judgment,  the  integrity  of  his  heart, 
the  singleness  of  his  purpose,  will  not  be  corrupted 
or  in  any  wise  injured.  But  we  shall  be  gratified 
because  we  have  done  a  right  and  good  thing,  and 
this  celebration  will  bear  fruit  for  the  kingdom 
which  he  has  served  so  efficiently. 

About  the  question  immediately  before  us,  the 
relation  of  the  college  to  home  missions,  I  only 
desire  to  remind  you  that  our  Methodist  colleges 
were  most  of  them  founded  by  men  who  were  es- 
sentially home  missionaries.  They  may  not  have 
had  the  highest  appreciation  of  technical  scholar- 
ship, but  they  did  have  a  noble  ideal  of  education  as 
a  preparation  for  service  and  for  work  which  they 
saw  must  be  done  in  this  land  and  in  all  the  earth, 
work  which  they  were  faithfully  attempting  to  do 
and  for  which  the  best  type  of  education  fits  men. 
We  need  to  conserve  and  make  much  of  this  con- 
ception of  education  in  these  days  when  emphasis 
is  being  laid  upon  scholarship  on  the  one  hand  and 
commercialism  on  the  other.  Right  nobly  has  this 
man  whom  we  honor  to-day  exemplified  the  higher 
function  of  education,  and  the  one  word  more  which 
I  would  speak  is  this:  that  the  finest  fruit  of  this 
celebration  will  be  the  emulation  of  his  example  by 
the  young  men  and  women  now  in  our  colleges. 
His  career  cannot  be  reproduced  or  paralleled,  per- 
haps, but  there  is  the  same  demand  and  opportunity 
for  service,  for  singleness  of  aim,  for  simplicity  and 
heroism  of  faith,  for  sound  sense  in  action,  that  there 
was  when  he  sailed  away  to  India  fifty  years  ago. 


PART   III 

ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FORMAL  TRIBUTE 
AND  JUBILEE  EXERCISES 


221 


ADDRESS    OF    DR.    WILLIAM    V.    KELLEY 

After  presenting  affectionate  greetings  to  the 
Bishop  from  Dr.  J.  T.  Gracey,  who  was  in  India 
with  Thoburn,  Mansell,  and  Messmore,  Dr.  Kelley 
said: 

President  Crawford,  Bishop  Thoburn,  and 
Friends :  Why  are  we  here  ?  John  Burroughs  deifies 
Walt  Whitman.  We  are  Christians  and  not 
pagans ;  we  do  not  deify  any  man.  If  this  celebra- 
tion were  simply  for  the  glorification  of  James  M. 
Thoburn  he  would  hold  up  his  hand  in  horror  and 
in  protest.  If  he  were  to  speak  to  us  here  this 
afternoon  I  think  he  would  suggest  that  we  join 
together  in  that  refrain  of  the  sweet  and  holy  Ger- 
man hymn,  "Let  Jesus  Christ  be  praised." 

We  are  here  to  rejoice  in  a  conspicuous  illustra- 
tion of  what  Jesus  Christ  can  do  with  the  man  and 
the  life  wholly  surrendered  to  his  control.  And  its 
lesson,  especially  to  the  students  of  this  college,  is : 
Consecrate  your  life,  fling  it  away  in  splendid 
abandon  for  Christ  and  the  world,  and  see  what 
will  come  of  it  for  you  in  the  fifty  years  ahead. 
It  is  for  us  to  realize  more  fully  through  this 
celebration  the  ineffable  majesty,  the  immeasur- 
able power,  the  imperishable  grandeur  of  Christian 
ideals  and   Christian  service.     If  this  be  not  the 

223 


224  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

result  the  whole  program  will  be  a  profitless  per- 
formance. 

We  are  here  to  nail  a  few  epithets  upon  the  name 
of  Thoburn,  to  call  him  some  names  indicative  of  our 
thoughts  about  him  and  our  feelings  toward  him. 

I  begin  by  calling  him  an  enthusiast.  I  go  to  my 
dictionary  for  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and 
Webster's  first  definition  of  an  enthusiast  is  one  who 
thinks  himself  divinely  inspired,  possessed  of  some 
special  revelation.  And  for  proof  of  the  propriety 
of  calling  him  an  enthusiast  I  refer  you  to  the 
September,  1906,'  number  of  the  Methodist  Review, 
in  which  you  will  find  an  article  entitled  "Inspira- 
tion" written  by  J.  M.  Thoburn.  In  that  article  he 
tells  how  as  a  missionary  again  and  again  he  has 
felt  himself  to  be  directly  inspired  by  God,  has  felt 
in  his  soul  that  he  had  a  special  revelation  from  him, 
not  to  be  foisted  upon  the  Church  or  forced  upon 
his  brethren  for  their  guidance,  but  absolutely  per- 
emptory for  him  in  the  marking  out  of  his  own 
plans  and  the  choosing  of  his  course.  Thus  has  he 
lived  his  life  and  done  his  work,  seeking  guidance 
from  God  and  getting  it.  This  is  notorious. 
Therefore,  under  that  first  definition  of  Webster, 
I  charge  that  this  man  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
enthusiasts  ever  produced  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

And  the  second  definition  is  like  unto  the  first 
in  its  fitness  and  applicability,  for  by  that  definition 
an  enthusiast  is  one  whose  mind  is  wholly  possessed 
and  heated  by  what  engages  it.     And  I  ask  you, 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  KELLEY  225 

who  know  men,  whether  that  does  not  describe 
James  M.  Thoburn.  Has  he  not  been  wholly  en- 
gaged and  heated  by  the  great  work  in  which  he  has 
been  engaged?  I  am  reminded  of  that  divine  en- 
thusiast who  set  aside  all  claims  of  relationship  and 
all  other  interests  and  said,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I 
must  be  about  my  Father's  business?" — and  of 
that  later  enthusiast  who  said,  "I  am  determined  to 
know  nothing  among  men  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him 
crucified.  This  one  thing  I  do.  I  count  all  things 
else  as  dung." 

A  splendid  enthusiast,  surely,  under  both  defini- 
tions of  the  word ! 

I  trust  I  shall  not  desecrate  this  place  nor  violate 
the  proprieties  of  this  occasion  if  I  say,  in  a  sense 
the  appropriateness  of  which  will  appear  in  a  mo- 
ment, I  trust,  that  I  have  figured  him  in  my  mind  as 
a  plunger.  Years  ago  when  he  was  a  young  man 
I  am  told  he  was  not  an  admirer  of  Browning  and 
not  a  believer  in  his  greatness.  But  one  day  in 
Singapore  when  weary,  if  not  sick,  he  was  lying 
down  and  resting;  and  Dr.  H.  C.  Stuntz,  who  was 
with  him,  began  to  read  to  him  parts  of  "Paracel- 
sus." The  Bishop  listened  until  the  reader  reached 
that  great  passage  about  the  pearl  diver  in  which 
he  says,  "Are  there  not  two  points  in  the  adventure 
of  a  diver,  one  when,  a  beggar,  he  prepares  to 
plunge,  one  when,  a  prince,  he  rises  with  his  pearl  ? 
Festus,  I  plunge."  And  the  listening  Bishop  ex- 
claimed, "Brother,  I  have  done  that  many  a  time. 
I  have  plunged." 


226  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

There  are  more  points  than  two  in  the  adventure 
of  a  diver.  This  man  knows  that  in  his  own  per- 
sonal experience.  He  has  known  what  it  is  to  stand 
alone,  stripped  of  all  secular  ambitions,  all  thought 
of  selfish  advantage,  naked  of  worldly  resources, 
and  plunge  into  the  sunless  depths  of  heathenism. 
He  knows  the  experience  of  the  diver  as  he  gropes 
along  the  bottom  in  the  mud  and  mire  and  slime  of 
heathenism,  feeling  for  pearls,  immortal,  unspeak- 
ably precious  pearls.  He  knows  the  feeling  of  the 
diver  when  he  closes  his  clutch  upon  the  treasures 
of  the  deep ;  he  knows  the  joy  of  the  diver  when  he 
comes  up  out  of  the  suffocation  and  the  darkness 
and  the  mire  and  holds  his  pearl  aloft  in  the  face  of 
heaven  and  the  light  of  day.  And  in  this  man's 
case,  when  he  plunged  into  the  depths  and  came  up 
with  his  treasures,  it  was  not  one  pearl  but,  first 
and  last,  hundreds  and  thousands  of  pearls.  This 
is  what  I  mean  when  I  call  him  a  plunger.  Empty- 
handed  he  plunged.  He  disappeared  from  sight. 
He  stayed  down  a  long  time,  sometimes.  He  was 
gone  for  years  and  we  did  not  see  him.  But  when 
he  came  back  it  was  with  his  hands  full  of  pearls. 
He  knows  what  it  is  to  make  the  grim  plunge  into 
dark  depths  and  what  it  is  to  rise  radiant,  with  his 
gleaming  treasure. 

I  will  call  him  a  typical  Christian  product.  The 
proof  of  Christianity  is  its  products,  in  men,  wo- 
men, institutions,  policies.  Christianity,  like  Paul 
before  Agrippa.  is  glad  of  the  privilege  anywhere 
to  speak  for  itself,  to  make  its  argument  and  present 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  KELLEY  227 

its  proof,  and  everywhere,  before  the  throne  of 
reason,  in  the  court  of  science,  in  the  halls  of  culture 
and  the  seats  of  the  mighty,  it  invites  the  sharpest 
criticism.  Especially  in  the  presence  of  the  heathen 
faiths  it  says,  "I  count  myself  happy  that  I  am  per- 
mitted to  answer  for  myself." 

And  it  produces  its  proofs  in  its  products — men. 
The  Christian  Church  in  America  had  such  men  as 
Thoburn  to  send  to  India,  such  men  as  Bashford  to 
go  to  China,  such  men  as  Hartzell  to  go  to  Africa, 
with  thousands  and  thousands  like  them,  first  and 
last,  to  go  to  the  darkened  nations  of  the  earth — 
Christian  statesmen,  Christian  heroes,  willing  to  toil 
terribly  for  the  uplift  of  the  nations  and  the  glory 
of  Christ,  willing  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  long 
labor  or  in  sudden  sacrifice,  as  the  Master  may 
demand. 

Christian  products  are  seen  in  institutions  also. 
Bishop  Thoburn,  you  know  better  than  I  do,  and 
your  confidence  in  the  prediction  is  stronger  than 
mine  intelligently  can  be,  that  the  day  will  come 
when  India,  looking  upon  our  institutions  planted 
there  by  Christianity,  will  say,  "The  God  that  sends 
relief  from  famine,  the  God  that  builds  asylums, 
that  makes  the  deaf  to  hear,  the  blind  to  see,  the 
lame  to  walk,  through  the  beneficent  and  skillful 
ministry  of  Christian  physicians,  the  God  that 
sprinkles  our  land  with  schools  to  enlighten  our 
darkness  and  elevate  our  degradation,  the  God  that 
makes  such  a  man  as  John  F.  Goucher  to  plant  and 
sustain  a  hundred  and  more  schools  in  the  villages 


228  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

of  India,  and  as  years  go  on  raises  up  generation 
after  generation  of  such  men  as  these,  the  God  that 
answereth  by  orphanages,  let  him  be  God!  Yea, 
let  the  God  of  Christian  institutions  be  our  God 
forever  and  ever !"  That  is  the  cry  that  will  sound 
all  over  India  in  the  day  of  the  Lord. 

In  policies  also  Christianity  has  proofs  to  offer. 
Why  is  it  that  America  stands  to-day  foremost  in 
the  eyes  »of  the  world  among  Christian  nations  ? 
Because  her  policies  toward  the  peoples  of  the  world 
are  more  Christian  than  those  of  any  other  nation. 
What  the  United  States  has  done  in  and  for  Cuba, 
what  the  United  States  has  done  and  is  doing  in 
and  for  the  Philippines,  what  the  United  States  has 
done  in  and  for  China,  what  John  Hay,  a  Christian 
statesman,  the  foremost  diplomat  and  statesman  of 
his  time  in  all  the  world,  did  for  diplomacy  between 
nations  when  he  made  frankness  and  candor  and 
openness  and  absolute  truthfulness  the  rule  and 
practice  in  diplomacy,  instead  of  concealment  and 
duplicity  and  trickery  and  intrigue ;  when  he  demon- 
strated that  the  Golden  Rule  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
applicable  and  supremely  wise  in  the  affairs  of  na- 
tions as  in  the  affairs  of  individuals ;  when  he  thus 
presented  to  the  world  the  spectacle  of  a  Christian 
product  in  his  own  person  and  in  the  nation  he 
represented — all  this  strengthened  magnificently  the 
evidences  of  Christianity.  Only  a  few  days  ago  a 
prominent  official  in  one  of  the  western  provinces 
of  China  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  com- 
mended to  the  people  of  his  province  the  Christian 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  KELLEY  229 

religion,  the  religion  that  could  produce  Americans 
who,  having  a  great  sum  of  money  from  the  Chinese 
nation  in  their  hands  as  an  indemnity,  all  uncom- 
pelled  and  even  unasked  returned  into  the  hands  of 
China  a  large  part  of  that  indemnity.  Such  a  national 
policy  toward  other  nations  presents  evidences  of 
Christianity  which  will  irresistibly  conquer  the 
world. 

One  more  epithet.  I  would  call  Bishop  Thoburn 
a  Christian  field  marshal.  What,  that  gentle,  mild- 
mannered,  soft-voiced,  and  decidedly  unmilitary- 
looking  man,  a  field  marshal!  Yes,  a  soldier  and 
a  general  for  Jesus  Christ.  Years  ago  there  died 
in  Switzerland  an  old  man  who  told  as  the  most 
memorable  event  of  his  boyhood  that  once  he  had 
strayed  into  the  French  camp  and  had  seen  Napo- 
leon Bonaparte  down  on  his  knees  studying  the  map 
of  Europe  on  a  drum  head.  A  significant  sight, 
surely,  for  the  peoples  of  Europe,  when  such  a 
man  as  he  goes  to  studying  the  map  of  Europe  on 
a  drum  head !  He  was  planning  to  roll  that  drum 
across  the  width  of  that  map.  He  was  studying 
the  situation  of  the  countries,  for  he  meant  to 
put  his  armies  in  their  capitals.  He  was  tracing 
the  boundaries  of  the  kingdoms,  for  he  meant  to 
push  his  drum  against  them  and  shove  them  this 
way  and  that  according  to  his  own  greedy  wish  and 
his  own  mighty  will.  Forty  years  ago  in  India 
you  might  have  seen  a  frail,  slender  young  man 
laying  the  map  of  India  alongside  his  open  Bible. 
He,  too,  was  bent  on  conquest.     He  meant  to  do 


230  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

what  he  could  to  carry  that  Word  of  Life  across 
the  width  of  that  Indian  map,  east  and  west,  north 
and  south.  I  call  him  as  grdat  a  marshal  in  his 
purpose  and  insatiable  longing  for  conquest  in  the 
Christian  empire  as  Napoleon  was  in  the  military 
conquest  of  Europe.  A  Christian  field  marshal 
surely  this  man  has  been. 

I  said  this  celebration  brings  us  here  not  to 
glorify  a  man,  but  to  glorify  Jesus  Christ,  who  made 
him  what  he  is  and  helped  him  to  do  what  he  has 
done.  And  I  would  like  the  privilege  for  just  one 
moment  of  holding  up  Jesus  Christ  before  these 
young  people  who  are  here,  in  order  that  if  possible 
the  glowing  incandescence  of  this  man's  devotion 
may  be  kindled  in  you  and  that  Allegheny  College, 
so  honored  in  her  sons  and  daughters  in  the  past, 
may  send  forth  from  her  doors  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  many  messengers  of  light  who  will  carry  the 
saving  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  perishing 
nations. 

On  the  first  day  I  ever  spent  on  English  soil  I 
heard  the  great  Mr.  Spurgeon  address  a  conven- 
tion of  Baptist  clergymen.  His  subject  was  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  charge  to  his  fellow  ministers  was 
that  they  should  rouse  themselves  and  lose  them- 
selves in  Christ,  that  they  should  spend  themselves 
unreservedly  and  passionately  in  his  service.  And 
he  closed  by  reciting  some  of  the  words  from 
Macaulay's  poem  where  before  the  battle  of  Ivry 
the  soldiers  said  concerning  Henry  of  Navarre,  their 
king  and  leader: 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  KELLEY  231 

The  king  is  come  to  marshal  us,  in  all  his  armor  drest; 
And  he  has  bound  a  snow-white  plume  upon  his  gallant 

crest. 
Right  graciously  he  smiled  on  us,  as  rolled  from  wing 

to  wing, 
Down  all  our  line,  a  deafening  shout:  "God  save  our 

lord  the  king!" 

And  then  King  Henry,  speaking  to  his  army,  said : 

"And  if  my  standard-bearer  fall,  as  fall  full  well  he  may. 
For  never  saw  1  promise  yet  of  such  a  bloody  fray, 
Press  where  ye  see  my  white  plume  shine  amidst  the 

ranks  of  war, 
And  be  your  oriflamme  to-day  the  helmet  of  Navarre." 

And  then  Spurgeon  held  up  Christ  as  the  divine 
Captain,  the  leader  who  goes  forth  to  certain  con- 
quest, who  should  kindle  our  souls  and  our  devotion 
a  thousandfold  more  than  any  human  leader  that 
ever  called  men  to  his  standard. 

Dear  young  people,  rich  and  fine  with  the  learn- 
ing of  the  schools  and  the  discipline  of  training; 
now,  when  the  call  is  sounding, 

"The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war: 
Who  follows  in  his  train?" 

summon  your  whole  being — "body,  soul,  and  spirit," 
as  the  old  knights  used  to  say — to  respond, 

"Be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him! 
Be  jubilant,  my  feet!" 


II 

ADDRESS  OF     DR.  C.  A.  R.  JANVIER 

Mr.  President,  ladies  and  gentlemen :  It  is  to  me 
a  very  great  pleasure  to  stand  here  and  represent  a 
sister  missionary  society  on  such  an  occasion  as 
this.  I  can  see  no  special  fitness  that  I  have  for 
being  here  as  such  representative  unless  indeed  it 
lie  in  the  fact  that  my  father  was  one  of  those  that 
greeted  Bishop  Thoburn  in  India  fifty  years  ago, 
and  that  the  mission  which  it  is  my  privilege  to 
represent  set  aside  two  of  its  preachers,  one  of  them 
bearing  in  part  my  father's  name  (Joel  Janvier, 
whom  Bishop  Thoburn  will  well  remember),  who 
became  the  first  workers  under  the  Methodist 
pioneers.  It  has  been  my  privilege  personally  to 
know  every  one  of  the  men  that  were  mentioned  a 
little  while  ago — Waugh,  Mansell,  and  Messmore. 
Twenty  years  ago  I  made  my  first  acquaintance 
with  him  whom  we  honor  to-day.  I  was  sent  as  the 
representative  of  the  Northern  India  Mission  to 
bear  friendly  greetings  to  the  Methodist  mission 
which  was  in  conference,  the  Conference  of  North 
India,  in  Bareilly.  And  there  Bishop  Thoburn 
made  an  address  on  the  Holy  Spirit  which  brought 
a  message  never  to  be  forgotten  by  at  least  one  who 
heard  him  that  day. 

There  are  three  things  that  especially  stand  out 
232 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  C.  A.  R.  JANVIER       233 

in  my  thought  of  Bishop  Thoburn.  The  first  is  his 
prophetic  vision.  He  has  been  from  the  first  a 
man  of  far  foresight.  He  is  a  dreamer  of  dreams, 
a  visionary  in  the  best  and  blessed  sense  of  the 
word.  He  saw  far,  he  saw  where  other  men  were 
blind,  he  saw  possibilities  where  other  men  saw  only 
difficulties.  He  saw,  for  instance,  the  possibilities 
which  lay  in  the  submerged  masses  in  India.  With 
prophetic  eye  he  saw  what  God  was  ready  to  do  for 
them.  Again,  he  was  the  first  to  see  what  the  mis- 
sionary movement  might  mean  to  the  Europeans 
and  Eurasians  in  India.  He  was  among  the  first 
to  solve  the  problem  of  reaching  that  population 
and  using  its  forces  for  the  advancement  of  the 
kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Then,  in  the  second  place,  he  was  not  only  a  man 
of  far  vision,  but  he  was  a  man  of  boundless  energy. 
He  would  have  been  only  a  dreamer  of  dreams  if 
he  had  not  added  that  insistent  restlessness  of 
energy.  He  cannot  sit  still  now.  He  never  could. 
His  only  thought  is  of  larger  endeavor.  I  under- 
stand you  are  going  to  give  him  a  house.  I  warn 
you  to  put  very  strong  bars  on  that  house  and  sur- 
round it  with  a  very  high  wall,  because  I  miss  my 
guess  if  one  of  these  days  you  do  not  lose  him  and 
see  him  out  in  India  again!  You  have  your  task 
cut  out  for  you  if  you  mean  to  keep  Bishop  Tho- 
burn in  Meadville.  He  is  full  of  that  unresting 
energy  born  of  intensity  of  purpose  and  boundless 
longing  for  service. 

But,  in  the  third  place,  neither  prophetic  vision 


234  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

nor  resistless  energy  could  ever  have  accomplished 
what  he  has  accomplished  if  he  had  not  been  a  man 
— may  I  put  it  this  way? — of  God-consciousness,  a 
man  who  from  the  very  first  heard  a  divine  call, 
a  man  who  went  out  into  the  loneliness  of  the  forest 
and  there  heard  God  speak  to  him.  He  went  to 
India  with  just  as  sure  a  sense  of  a  call  as  Samuel 
had  when  he  was  called  and  Eli  explained  to  him 
God's  message.  He  recognized  a  call  from  God 
at  every  step,  and  while  he  did  not  for  a  moment 
pretend  to  say  that  it  bound  others  who  were 
associated  with  him,  it  absolutely  and  inexorably 
bound  him.  At  every  step  of  the  way  on  through 
these  fifty  years  he  has  heard  God  calling  him,  and 
so  far  as  I  know  by  God's  grace  he  has  never  turned 
away  from  the  call.  Can  you  wonder  that  a  man 
with  that  vision,  a  man  with  that  energy,  a  man 
with  that  sense  of  God's  call,  of  God's  nearness,  of 
God's  readiness  to  bless,  has  accomplished  what  he 
has  accomplished  ?  Can  you  wonder  that  he  is  one 
of  the  most  inveterate  and  unconvertible  optimists 
that  this  world  ever  knew? 

And  yet,  dear  friends,  that  is  not  the  whole  of 
the  story.  When  you  have  said  what  you  may  of 
Bishop  Thoburn's  foresight,  his  energy,  and  his 
sense  of  a  call  from  God  at  every  step,  that  is  not 
the  whole.  There  are  some  men  of  whom  it  is 
said  they  are  larger  than  their  work,  they  have  given 
dignity  to  their  work  and  made  it  great.  With  all 
honor  to  Bishop  Thoburn — and  no  one  can  honor 
him  more  than   I  do — I  say  without  the  smallest 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  C.  A.  R.  JANVIER        235 

hesitation  that  his  work  is  greater  than  he,  and  it 
is  in  part  his  work  that  has  made  him  great.  He 
is  great  to-day  because  he  stands  against  the  back- 
ground of  a  great  empire  which  he  is  helping  to 
win  for  Jesus  Christ.  And  I  would  for  a  moment 
turn  your  vision  away  from  Bishop  Thoburn  to 
the  India  which  he  loves.  And  yet  as  you  turn  your 
faces  toward  India,  you  will  not  have  turned  them 
from  Bishop  Thoburn,  for  you  will  see  him  there 
still.  And  long  after  he  shall  have  been  called  to 
the  reward  above — and  God  grant  that  the  call  may 
be  long  delayed! — you  still  will  see  Bishop  Tho- 
burn in  India  in  the  tens  of  thousands  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  that  have  been  reclaimed  in  the  name 
of  Him  whose  gospel  means  light  and  life  in  their 
darkness  and  their  death. 

I  bid  you  turn  your  eyes  toward  India  for  a 
moment  and  see  the  changes  that  have  come  since 
Bishop  Thoburn  went  there.  I  was  told  since  com- 
ing to  the  platform  that  after  he  had  been  there 
five  years  he  came  back  and  reported  five  converts. 
This  last  time  when  he  was  in  India  in  one  day  he 
baptized  eight  hundred  and  thirty-seven.  And 
that  is  only  a  hint  of  the  changes  that  have  taken 
place.  When  Bishop  Thoburn  went  there  in  1859 
there  were  in  the  neighborhood  of  one  hundred 
thousand  Protestant  native  Christians.  There  has 
been  an  increase  in  these  fifty  years  of  about  one 
thousand  per  cent.  One  hundred  thousand  has 
grown  to  well  over  a  million.  God  has  done 
wonderful  things  in  India,  and  what  he  has  done 


236  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

is  only  the  beginning  of  what  he  is  yet  going  to  do. 
I  had  a  letter  the  other  day  from  a  friend  who  has 
watched  closely  the  movement  among  the  Mihtars, 
or  outcasts,  and  he  said  that  those  who  are  in  touch 
with  the  present-day  situation  are  saying  that  there 
is  beginning  among  the  Chumars,  the  lowest  of 
those  who  are  in  caste,  a  movement  that  will  throw 
into  the  shade  anything  that  has  ever  yet  taken 
place.  Bishop  Thoburn  will  recognize  the  outlook 
as  no  one  else  can. 

In  truth,  India  ■'has  been  stirred  during  this  half 
century  as  perhaps  no  other  nation  except  possibly 
Japan.  Intellectual  movements,  social  movements, 
political  movements,  religious  movements  have  taken 
place,  and  have  upheaved  the  nation  that  was  dream- 
ing the  dreams  of  Nirvana,  a  nation  sunk  in  the 
depths  of  moral  and  spiritual  torpor  and  lethargy 
such  as  no  one  can  know  who  has  not  come  in  contact 
with  it.  In  India,  remember,Nare  two  great  religions 
— Mohammedanism,  with  its  deadening  fatalism, 
and  Hinduism,  with  its  even  more  deadening  panthe- 
ism. The  Mohammedan  conscience  is  killed  by  its 
fatalism.  What  was  to  be  came  to  pass,  and  there  is 
nothing  to  be  done  about  it.  Catch  your  Moham- 
medan servant  in  some  fault,  and  he  will  lie  out  of 
it  as  long  as  he  can — and  somewhat  longer — and 
when  you  finally  get  him  where  there  is  no  escape, 
he  will  face  you  and  say,  "What  could  I  do,  sir? 
The  handwriting  on  my  forehead  was  too  much 
for  me!  It  is  written  on  my  forehead."  Yes,  even 
to  killing  a  man,  the  answer  will  be,  "It  was  written 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  C.  A.  R.  JANVIER       237 

on  his  forehead  that  he  should  die,  and  on  mine 
that  I  should  kill  him:  what  could  I  do?"  And  this 
fatalism  is  no  mere  hair-splitting  of  the  philosoph- 
ical student,  it  is  the  thought  of  the  man  on  the 
street. 

And  the  controlling  thought  of  pantheism,  I  say, 
is  even  more  deadening.  There  is  nothing  but  God. 
God  is  all  and  all  is  God.  God  is  good,  therefore 
all  is  good.  What  is  sin?  Sin  is  either  a  phase  of 
God  or  else  it  is  illusion.  If  my  sin  is  illusion  I  am 
a  fool  to  be  troubled  about  it;  if  my  sin  is  a 
phase  of  God  I  am  worse  than  a  fool  to  be 
troubled  about  it.  Naturally  men  and  women 
are  not  troubled  about  their  sin.  You  have  been 
told  that  the  people  of  India  are  intensely  reli- 
gious. A  great  deal  of  the  religion  is  outward 
formalism.  A  great  deal  more  is  only  worldliness 
plus  superstition.  A  great  many  pilgrimages  are 
made  annually  to  secure  the  favor  of  the  gods — 
that  cows  may  calve,  that  crops  may  be  plentiful, 
that  a  wife  may  bear  a  son.  The  religion  born  of 
a  sense  of  sin  and  need  is  rare.  For  pantheism  has 
sent  conscience  to  sleep.  And  I  want  to  say  to  you 
to-day  what  I  think  still  needs  to  be  said.  The 
missionary  is  not  a  rainbow-chaser.  The  Bishop 
is  not  leading  a  band  of  "short-haired  women  and 
long-haired  men."  He  is  a  man  who  has  seen  a 
deep,  dark  need,  and  by  God's  help  is  trying  to 
meet  it.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  missionaries 
exaggerate  the  immorality  of  the  lands  to  which 
they  minister.     I   tell  you  a  missionary  dare  not 


238  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

tell  the  whole  truth.  Bishop  Thoburn  dare  not 
tell  you  the  whole  truth  about  the  morals  of  India — 
the  morals  of  India,  not  in  spite  of  these  religions, 
but,  alas,  largely  because  of  those  religions ! 

My  heart  goes  out  in  a  great  longing  in  behalf 
of  India  as  I  face  the  young  men  and  young  women 
of  this  college.  India  desperately  needs  just  such 
help  as  you  can  give.  Men  and  women,  if  you  want 
to  honor  Bishop  Thoburn,  do  not  simply  form  an 
academic  procession  here!  Head  your  procession 
the  other  way — head  it  for  India!  Let  there  go 
out  a  great  stream  of  America's  best  young  men 
and  women,  men  and  women  of  long  vision,  men 
and  women  of  intense  energy,  men  and  women  who 
hear  God's  call.  Go  out  in  the  footsteps  of  Thoburn 
and  help  to  win  India  for  Jesus  Christ ! 


Ill 

ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  JOHN  W.  HAMILTON 

Mr.  President,  you  have  conferred  very  high 
honor  in  selecting  me  to  represent  to-day  the  chief 
pastors  of  our  great  Church.  My  brother,  many 
another  of  the  score  and  more  of  the  Bishops  would 
have  chosen  golden  speech  with  which  to  bring  to 
you  our  tribute.  I  would  yield  to  no  one  of  them 
in  the  sincere  and  affectionate  esteem  of  you  as 
the  distinguished  colleague  whose  name  is  in  all 
the  earth,  and  no  one  of  the  number,  I  am  sure, 
would  bring  a  higher  estimate  of  your  long  service 
in  the  Church  and  for  the  world. 

But  I  take  it  the  associations  and  memories  of 
many  years  have  something  to  do  with  my  invita- 
tion to  speak  at  this  hour.  I  have  come  from  the 
New  England  Conference,  of  which  William  Butler, 
the  founder  of  the  missions  in  India,  was  a  member, 
and  within  the  bounds  of  which  Mrs.  William 
Butler,  whose  heart  is  large  enough  to  make  her  the 
foster  mother  of  all  the  missions,  still  lives  at  an 
age  so  great  and  so  full  of  honor  as  to  take  away 
all  of  woman's  desire  for  the  concealment  of  the 
number  of  the  years  of  her  pilgrimage. 

I  had  the  honor  myself  to  be  appointed  a  mis- 
sionary to  India.  I  was  chosen  first  by  Bishop 
Janes  to  go  to  Bulgaria,  but  at  the  earnest  solicita- 

239 


240  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

tion  of  Drs.  Durbin  and  Harris,  and  Bishop  Simp- 
son, who  had  the  charge  of  the  mission,  I  was 
changed  to  India,  where  I  was  to  have  the  editor- 
ship of  the  Witness,  with  the  department  of  publica- 
tions. But,  in  the  mysterious  providence  of  this 
life,  my  father  was  taken  into  the  skies,  and  he  left 
my  mother  with  six  children  to  fall  into  my  arms. 
I  lost  my  opportunity  for  the  honors  abroad,  and 
have  only  been  a  home  missionary  since. 

Then  there  was  another  association,  down  in  the 
southeastern  side  of  Ohio.  My  father,  a  Pittsburg 
Conference  preacher,  was  pastor  of  this  great  Tho- 
burn  family.  I  gave  my  heart  to  God  and  my  name 
to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  on  the  24th 
day  of  February,  1854,  in  the  very  same  society 
where  this  brother,  James  M.  Thoburn,  nearly  a 
year  later,  on  his  return  from  Allegheny  College, 
was  received  from  probation  into  full  membership. 
I  might  claim,  therefore,  some  little  right  to  be  here. 

I  have  had  a  long  association  in  many  ways  with 
the  work  of  the  Thoburns.  I  was  present  at  the 
first  meeting  in  connection  with  the  organization 
of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  in 
Boston,  and  wrote  the  first  report  of  its  beginnings, 
which  went  into  all  the  Advocates.  I  was  present 
at  the  reception  given  the  first  missionary  appointed 
by  this  society,  and  in  the  farewell  meeting,  when 
she  took  her  departure  from  Boston  to  India.  And 
she  was  this  Bishop's  sister- — Isabella  Thoburn. 

Fifty  years  ago!  What  a  half  century!  The 
world  has  lived  more  in  this  half  century  than  in 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  HAMILTON         241 

all  the  six  thousand — or  twenty  million,  as  Lord 
Kelvin  thinks — years  before.  We  know  more  of 
Jesus  Christ,  his  mission  on  the  earth  and  his  saving 
power,  from  the  revelation  of  these  fifty  years  than 
the  disciples  who  walked  with  him  and  talked  with 
him.  I  am  glad  that  I  have  lived  long  enough  to 
witness  the  wonderful  change  which  has  come  over 
the  thought  of  the  Church  concerning  Christian 
missions.  I  can  remember  when  it  was  thought 
that  if  a  preacher  was  not  competent  for  the  work 
at  home  he  would  do  for  a  missionary.  Send  him 
South,  it  was  said,  or  send  him  to  Africa,  far-off 
India,  or  Cathay.  While  it  would  be  slander  upon 
the  heroic  men  and  women  who  founded  missions 
on  the  frontiers  and  rims  of  the  hemispheres,  there 
are  men  and  women  here  who  know  full  well  that 
this  was  the  thought  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the 
committees  which  went  to  the  Annual  Conferences 
to  seek  pastors  for  the  next  year. 

Now,  I  am  going  to  say  something  which  some 
of  the  persons  present  may  not  appreciate,  but  you, 
my  brother  Bishop,  will  appreciate  full  well.  It 
is  not  your  office,  sir,  which  has  honored  you,  but 
you  have  lifted  your  office  into  honor  before  the 
whole  world.  I  am  old  enough  to  recall  that  your 
office  was  conceived  in  sin  and  brought  forth  in 
iniquity.  When  your  first  predecessor  in  the  office 
came  to  this  country  from  his  hamlet  diocese  he 
could  not  find  a  seat  in  a  conveyance  between  Phil- 
adelphia and  New  York.  It  stirred  the  heart  and 
pocket  of  a  great  layman  to  charter  a  train  of  cars 


242  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

to  carry  him  when  he  rode  alone.  He  was  not 
worthy  to  sit  among  the  General  Superintendents 
of  the  Church. 

When  I  was  first  elected  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence I  promised  God  before  I  left  my  home  that  if 
it  were  in  my  power  I  would  do  something  toward 
the  taking  down  or  breaking  down  of  the  middle 
wall  of  partition,  built  up  from  perdition  between 
the  office  of  Missionary  Bishop  and  that  of  General 
Superintendent.  And  while  it  was  a  bit  of  bra- 
vado, possibly — some  one  said  I  was  cutting  a  dido 
and  that  it  ended  my  career — for  me  to  say,  as  you 
will  find  by  turning  back  to  the  Daily  Advocate  I 
did  say,  I  would  not  have  such  an  office  if  it  were 
brought  to  me  on  a  silver  plate,  I  had  something  in 
my  heart  which  was  of  the  nature  of  love  and  care 
for  my  fellow  man,  if  he  were  black.  I  determined 
that  no  more  black  men  should  be  selected  for  that 
office  until  it  had  been  dignified  in  the  mind  and  heart 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  There  were 
good  men  in  that  Conference  who  went  about  engag- 
ing this  colored  man,  that  colored  man,  and  the  other 
colored  man  to  take  the  office,  but  I  followed  in 
their  footsteps,  often  until  the  "wee  sma'  hours"  of 
the  morning,  to  get  every  man  of  them  to  promise 
that  he  would  not  have  the  office  when  it  was 
brought  to  him.  When  finally  it  seemed  an  inspira- 
tion that  a  white  man  could  be  selected,  I  moved  up 
and  down  the  aisles  among  these  men  and  said, 
"Here  is  the  deliverance  from  this  office  in  Africa. 
Let  us  elect  William  Taylor."     And  it  was  as  if 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  HAMILTON         243 

God  had  spoken  to  enough  voters  to  bring  about 
the  result.  But  I  recall  what  a  sensation  was  pro- 
duced when  it  was  announced  that  William  Taylor 
was  elected  "the  black  Bishop"  of  Africa.  "He 
was  a  man."  Such  was  the  excitement  and  chagrin 
of  defeat,  that  the  conservative  leader,  then  so  long 
time  editor  of  The  Christian  Advocate,  now  gone 
where  color  gives  trouble  no  more,  could  not  contain 
himself,  and  he  hurried  away  to  the  New  England 
delegation  where  I  was  seated  and  with  much  anima- 
tion in  his  manner  and  voice  said  to  me,  "We  will  put 
such  restrictions  on  him  that  he  will  be  no  bigger 
than  if  he  were  black."  I  arose  in  my  place,  with 
equal  determination — rather  presumptuous,  I  admit, 
with  a  gray-haired  man  talking  to  me  in  that  way — 
and  replied,  "You  try  to  do  that  and  we  will  take  off 
what  restrictions  are  now  on."  In  the  cooler  mo- 
ments which  followed  we  simply  left  Bishop  Taylor 
limited  to  Africa — but  he  not  only  had  the  whole 
continent  to  himself:  very  much  of  both  hemi- 
spheres. What  I  wanted  was  to  bring  the  contemp- 
tuously treated  office  up  from  its  humiliation. 

And  then,  sir,  when  in  another  General  Confer- 
ence your  name  was  mentioned  for  the  office,  I 
knew,  just  as  the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  first  called 
Christians  at  Antioch,  and  the  Wesleyans,  Meth- 
odists at  Oxford,  we  had  a  name  to  conjure 
with,  and  which  would  lift  this  office  to  such 
dignity  as  to  make  it  worthy  of  the  ambition  of 
the  man  who  could  have  the  office  of  the  General 
Superintendent.     To-day  I  stand  here  to  find  all 


244  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

continents  bringing  honors  to  you,  and  you  are 
bringing  such  honor  to  Meadville  as  to  place  it 
among  the  immortals.  Your  grave,  sir,  will  be 
a  shrine  for  pilgrimages.  When  many  of  our 
names  in  the  General  Superintendency  will  be  for- 
gotten, the  missionaries  from  all  lands  and  the 
representatives  of  the  nations  of  them  which  are 
saved  will  come  to  read  the  lines  upon  your  tomb- 
stone, when  the  kings  of  the  earth  could  bring 
no  greater  honor  to  you.  I  would  rather  have 
the  honors  that  will  crown  your  head  than  to  be 
King  of  England  or  President  of  the  United 
States.  A  single  line  written  on  a  plain  stone  set 
up  at  your  sepulcher  will  be  epitaph  enough — "He 
turned  many  to  righteousness  and  saw  a  nation 
born  in  a  day." 

I  can  say  little  more*.  You  have  gone  over  this 
world  putting  your  poverty  into  the  face  of  the 
wealth  of  many  lands,  pleading  for  every  cause,  but 
never  for  yourself.  You  have  been  saying  by  your 
own  giving,  if  not  in  song,  what  everyone  has 
well  known : 

"No  foot  of  land  do  I  possess, 
No  cottage  in  this  wilderness, 
A  poor  wayfaring  man." 


But, 


Servant  of  God,  well  done! 

Your  glorious  poverty  is  past; 
The  battle  is  fought,  the  race  is  run, 

And  you  have  a  house  at  last! 


IV 

PRESENTATION  OF  HOUSE 

DR.  H.  G.  DODDS 

There  is  just  one  claim  that  I  insist  on  making 
for  Bishop  Thoburn  which  has  been  mentioned  by 
no  one  else,  and  it  is  this:  The  result  of  his  work 
proves  him  to  be  one  of  the  world's  chief  bene- 
factors. I  do  not  hold  that  he  could  ever  have  pro- 
duced a  play  of  Shakespeare,  or  a  "Paradise  Lost" ; 
nor  do  I  say  that  he  could  ever  have  constructed  a 
locomotive  as  did  Stephenson,  or  have  developed  a 
scheme  for  harnessing  the  subtle  forces  of  electricity 
and  compelling  them  to  obey  his  will  and  do  his 
service  as  is  done  by  Edison ;  nor  do  I  say  that  he 
could  ever  have  championed  a  Reformation  as  did 
Luther,  or  have  achieved  success  upon  the  field  of 
battle  as  did  Grant.  And  I  would  be  very  slow  in 
believing  that  any  one  of  these  could  ever  have 
entered  his  field  of  achievement  with  the  degree  of 
success  that  has  attended  his  effort,  yet  they  and  he 
are  all  rightly  and  proudly  named  as  benefactors 
of  the  race.  Any  man  who,  by  his  skill  and  toil, 
takes  from  the  soil  or  from  the  mines  of  the  earth 
the  latent  forces  which,  when  turned  into  the 
channels  of  trade,  greatly  add  to  the  world's  wealth 
may  rightly  be  called  a  benefactor  of  the  race.  And 
again,   any  man   that   extends   the   boundaries   of 

245 


246  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

man's  field  of  investigation  by  the  discovery  of  new 
planets  in  the  heavens,  new  laws  for  the  government 
and  use  of  the  elements  about  us,  or  new  and 
beneficent  purposes  to  which  the  materials  or  the 
forces  that  are  known  to  man  may  be  applied, 
has  added  to  the  world's  wealth  and„  well-being 
and  may  rightly  be  called  a  benefactor  of  the 
race.  And  again,  any  man  that  invents  new 
devices  by  which  the  labor  of  man  is  lightened, 
or  his  convenience,  his  health,  or  his  safety  is 
provided  for,  has  added  to  the  world's  wealth 
and  well-being  and  may  rightly  be  named  as  a 
benefactor  of  the  race.  But  the  man  that  looks 
upon  every  child  of  Adam  as  representing  "either 
a  potential  addition  to  the  productive  capacity  and 
enlightened  citizenship  of  the  world,  or,  if  allowed 
to  suffer  from  neglect,  a  potential  addition  to  the 
destructive  forces  amongst  men,"  and  establishes 
a  system  of  operation  by  which  these  potentialities 
are  perpetually  turned  away  from  the  evil  and  in 
the  direction  of  the  good ;  he  that  changes  the  dark- 
ness of  ignorance  and  superstition  into  the  light 
of  knowledge,  and  enables  brutish  men  to  think  the 
great  thoughts  of  God  after  him;  he  that  shatters 
the  prejudices  against  womanhood  and  lifts  her 
up  from  a  plane  of  degradation  to  one  of  admira- 
tion ;  he  that  fills  the  human  heart  with  divine  emo- 
tions and  inspires  men  steeped  in  sin  with  a  desire 
to  become  sons  of  God — such  a  one  adds  most  to 
the  world's  wealth  and  well-being  and  must  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  earth's  greatest  benefactors. 


PRESENTATION  OF  HOUSE  247 

All  this  and  more  has  been  accomplished  by  him 
whom  we  are  all  delighted  to  honor  to-day. 

Bishop  Thoburn,  I  am  unable  to  express  the 
gratitude  of  the  dwellers  in  India,  more  than  two 
hundred  thousand  of  whom  are  now  the  followers 
of  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  great  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  or  of  the  Protestant  world,  to  you  for  your 
splendid  life  of  self-sacrifice  and  devotion  to  the 
highest  interests  of  men.  But  it  is  now  my  pleasant 
privilege  to  represent  a  few  of  your  warm  personal 
friends  who  have  hoped  to  express  their  apprecia- 
tion of  your  service  to  the  Church,  in  a  substantial 
way  that  may  add  to  your  comfort  in  your  later 
life.  In  this  envelope  you  will  find  a  clear  title  to 
a  modest  but  comfortable  home  on  Locust  Street 
in  this  city,  where  you  may  dwell  with  your  family 
while  God  spares  you  in  the  flesh.  It  is  wrapped 
within  the  folds  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  that 
splendid  banner  of  freedom  under  which  you  were 
born  and  under  which  you  expect  to  spend  the 
remnant  of  your  days  upon  the  earth,  and  for  which 
your  heart  is  filled  with  love  and  loyalty.  In  this 
envelope  you  will  find  the  names  of  those  who  have 
contributed  toward  the  purchase  of  the  home, 
together  with  a  check  for  a  sum  of  money  sufficient 
to  enable  you  to  modify  and  improve  the  home 
according  to  your  liking.  It  is  wrapped  within  the 
folds  of  the  Union  Jack,  the  British  flag,  that 
splendid  banner  under  which  a  great  portion  of  your 
work  was  done  and  for  which  you  have  learned  to 
cherish  an  ardent  spirit  of  admiration. 


248  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

In  these  two  envelopes  you  will  find  not  that 
which  proposes  to  be  a  sufficient  compensation  for 
your  service  in  the  Church  of  God,  but  a  small  token 
of  the  love  and  esteem  in  which  you  are  held  by 
the  friends  of  Allegheny  College,  your  Alma  Mater, 
by  the  people  of  America,  and  by  civilization  every- 
where. We  congratulate  you  upon  your  having 
been  spared  to  stand  for  fifty  years  upon  the  fight- 
ing line  in  the  Lord's  army,  and  for  the  splendid 
victories  you  have  been  permitted  to  witness.  May 
you  live  to  see  still  brighter  days  for  India  and  for 
all  the  darkened  corners  of  the  earth,  and  when  you 
pass  away  from  the  protection  of  these  two  Anglo- 
Saxon  banners,  may  it  be  to  spend  eternity  under 
the  protection  of  the  more  glorious  banner  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

RESPONSE 

BISHOP  THOBURN 

I  have  more  in  my  heart  to  say  than  I  could  say 
if  I  remained  here  all  night  and  retained  the  power 
of  speech.  It  is  very  hard  to  say  anything.  I  feel 
just  a  little  like  the  boy  who  found  it  very  hard  to 
eat  butter  because  it  would  stick  in  his  throat. 
There  are  so  many  things  which  occur  to  me,  some 
of  which  are  due  to  you;  but  I  cannot  possibly 
attempt  to  make  anything  like  a  formal  address. 

I  do  wish  to  say,  however,  and  this  is,  perhaps, 
the  only  response  I  can  give,  that  I  feel  now  that 
I  belong  to  your  community,  and  I  hope  to  make 
myself  as  useful  as  I  possibly  can  while  God  per- 


PRESENTATION  OF  HOUSE  249 

mits  me  to  live  among  you.  I  have  been  reminded 
again  and  again  to-day  of  a  beautiful  story  that  we 
find  in  the  Bible,  about  the  notable  woman  who  had 
returned  to  her  country  in  a  time  of  distress  after 
long  absence.  The  prophet  knew  her  worth  and 
kindly  offered  to  speak  to  the  king  in  her  behalf, 
but  she  declined  the  offer,  saying,  "I  dwell  among 
my  own  people."  I  adopt  this  as  my  own  motto 
to-day.  The  people  of  Meadville  are  my  own 
people  hereafter.  I  am  one  of  them,  and  our  inter- 
ests are  merged  together. 

I  could  say  very  much  more — and  very  much 
more  is  due  to  many  kind  friends  who  are  here — 
but  my  feelings  will  not  permit  me.  May  God  bless 
you  one  and  all,  present  or  absent,  now  and  ever- 
more, and  when  you  fail  on  earth,  may  we  all  be 
received  together  into  everlasting  habitations! 


V 

MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  AND  APPRECIATION 

William  H.  Taft,  President  of  the  United  States: 

I  have  your  favor  concerning  the  celebration  of  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  sailing  for 
India.  I  know  Bishop  Thoburn  and  have  the  highest 
regard  for  him  and  for  his  great  work,  and  take  pleasure 
in  sending  my  good  wishes  for  the  Jubilee. 

Hon.  James  Bryce,   English  Ambassador   (written 
from  Fresno,  California)  : 

Till  now  I  have  cherished  the  hope  of  being  able  to 
be  with  you  on  the  13th,  but  during  the  last  two  or 
three  days  it  has  become  plain  to  me  that  I  must  travel 
direct  to  Washington,  and  the  same  duty  to  arrive 
there  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  has  obliged  me 
also  to  decline  to  speak  in  several  important  cities  on 
the  way.  It  is  a  great  disappointment,  for  I  should 
have  valued  the  opportunity  of  joining  in  the  tribute 
to  Bishop  Thoburn  and  of  addressing  you  on  the  sub- 
ject of  missions  in  India. 

Pray  express  my  most  sincere  regrets. 

Edwin  S.  Stuart,  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Pennsylvania: 

I  have  pleasure  in  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  your 
courteous  letter  of  the  28th  inst.,  inviting  me  to  attend 
the  Jubilee  to  be  held  at  the  college  in  April,  from  the 
nth  to  13th.  I  wish  that  I  could  accept  this  kind 
invitation,  but  the  Legislature,  which  is  now  in  session, 
has  passed  a  resolution  fixing  April  1 5th  as  the  time  for 

250 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  251 

adjournment.  The  pressure  of  official  business  just 
previous  to  that  time  and  for  thirty  days  after  adjourn- 
ment will  be  extremely  heavy. 

Sir  Andrew  Leith  Fraser,  of  India: 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  be  present, 
on  April  nth  to  13th,  at  Allegheny  College,  for  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  sailing  for 
India.  I  regret  that,  as  I  leave  for  England  next  Satur- 
day (10th  inst.),  I  am  unable  to  accept  that  invitation. 

Bishop  Thoburn  has  done  much  for  India.  I  feel 
very  strongly  the  value  of  mission  work  among  the 
Indians,  and  the  great  importance  of  the  influence 
exercised  among  the  people  of  India  by  the  life  and 
character,  as  well  as  by  the  teaching,  of  the  missionary. 
It  would  have  given  me  great  pleasure  to  have  had  an 
opportunity  of  testifying  to  my  grateful  sense  of  what 
Bishop  Thoburn  has  done  in  mission  work. 

I  also  greatly  appreciate  the  Bishop's  splendid  work 
among  the  poorer  white  population  and  the  Eurasians. 
These  had  been  greatly  neglected,  owing  to  the  special 
nature  of  the  duties  of  chaplains  to  troops  and  mission- 
aries to  the  Indians,  while  no  special  agency  was  sent 
to  the  European  and  Eurasian  non-official  population. 
I  remember  the  late  Sir  Charles  Bernard  saying  to  me 
that  his  heart  was  filled  with  hope  regarding  the  future 
of  the  Eurasians  after  a  visit  to  Bishop  Thoburn's 
church  in  Calcutta. 

I  share  with  you  your  congratulations  to  the  Bishop, 
and  your  prayers  for  his  happiness. 

Bishop  J.  E.  Robinson : 

What  a  noble  part  Bishop  Thoburn  has  played  in 
the  great  preparation  that  the  Church  has  been  making 
for  the  spiritual  conquest  of  these  lands  which  have 
been  the  theater  of  his  unrivaled  activities!  Who  is 
there  among  us  equal  to  the  task  of  estimating  the 


252  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

measure  of  the  influence  of  this  heroic  missionary  leader 
in  laying  imperishable  foundations  and  shaping  the 
policy  of  the  Church  in  these  awaking  Eastern  lands? 
In  Saint  Paul's  Cathedral,  London,  a  familiar  inscription 
bids  those  who  would  fain  see  the  monument  of  the 
architect  of  the  stately  fane  to  look  around.  Circum- 
spice!  In  the  time  to  come  Western  visitors  to  the 
East  will  ask  for  Bishop  Thoburn's  monument.  Thank 
God,  there  will  be  those  of  the  Methodist  faith  at  hand 
in  all  parts  of  India,  Burma,  Malaysia,  and  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  to  bid  the  inquiring  friends  to  look  around. 
In  the  prosperous  churches  established  through  his  bold 
initiative,  in  the  well-equipped  educational  institutions 
that  owe  their  existence  in  whole  or  in  part  to  his 
optimistic  faith,  in  numberless  well-ordered  communities 
of  happy  Methodist  Christians  that  in  all  human  prob- 
ability would  have  no  existence  apart  from  his  aggressive 
leadership,  in  various  useful  enterprises  that  were 
brought  into  being  through  his  farseeing  statesmanship, 
will  be  found  an  embodiment  and  expression  of  the 
service  he  has  rendered  to  mankind  far  more  worthy 
and  enduring  than  any  monument  of  marble  or  bronze 
that  might  be  erected  to  his  memory. 

Much  there  is  in  my  heart  to  say  at  this  time  con- 
cerning my  dear  and  honored  friend,  but  I  must  refrain. 
Zinzendorf,  the  noble  missionary-spirited  leader  of  the 
Moravians,  was  wont  to  say,  "I  have  one  passion;  it  is 
He,  it  is  He!"  For  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  I 
have  labored  practically  by  the  side  of  James  M.  Tho- 
burn.  I  say  now  with  the  utmost  deliberation  that,  in 
my  wide  fellowship  of  service  with  many  true-hearted 
servants  of  God  during  all  this  period,  I  have  never 
found  anyone  who  seemed  to  me  more  fully  dominated 
by  the  passionate  desire  to  establish  and  advance  the 
kingdom  of  God  among  men.  From  this  all-absorbing 
desire  to  make  Christ  known  among  the  Gentiles  and  to 
give  peoples  in  the  regions  beyond  who  sit  in  darkness 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  253 

a  healing  glimpse  of  the  Light  that  lighteth  every  man 
coming  into  the  world,  nothing  could  possibly  divert 
him. 

Bishop  M.  C.  Harris : 

I  very  much  regret  that  I  cannot  be  present  at  the 
"Thoburn  Jubilee,"  but  avail  myself  of  the  opportunity 
of  sending  a  few  words  of  greeting. 

My  first  word  is  thanksgiving  to  God  that  our  be- 
loved Bishop  has  rounded  out  a  half  century  of  service 
to  God  and  man.  By  his  own  request  the  last  General 
Conference  placed  him  among  the  retired  worthies  of 
our  episcopal  family,  but  he  continues  in  labors  abun- 
dant, with  voice  and  pen,  for  the  extension  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Neither  to  him  nor  to  any  other 
man  is  it  permitted  to  join  the  higher  service  of  the 
"choir  invisible"  until  the  earthly  work  is  done. 

Personally  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  him,  and  would 
now  confess  it  with  a  grateful  heart.  His  letters  from 
India  to  the  dear  old  Pittsburg  Christian  Advocate 
opened  to  me  the  strange  world  of  India,  fired  my  heart 
with  missionary  zeal,  and  finally  led  me  to  yield  my  life 
to  God  for  the  service  of  Christ  in  Eastern  Asia.  All 
these  years  he  has  been  to  me  a  teacher  and  an  inspir- 
ing example  of  self-effacement  for  the  salvation  of  men. 

While  he  has  been  devoted  to  India,  his  first  love, 
yet  he  has  taken  the  whole  unevangelized  world  into 
his  heart.  His  appeals  have  not  been  alone  for  Southern 
Asia,  but  for  Eastern  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  islands  of 
the  sea.  For  all  non-Christian  tribes  and  nations  he  has 
made  eloquent  appeals,  and  urged  the  Church  to  go 
forward. 

In  brief,  the  breadth  of  his  vision,  the  universality  of 
his  sympathies,  and  deathless  passion  for  the  redemption 
of  all  men,  his  world-moving  faith  in  the  Son  of  God 
and  his  coming  reign  over  all  the  earth,  his  practical 
wisdom,    crowned    with    self-abnegation,    give    to    this 


254  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

"apostle  to  the  Gentiles"  a  place  of  high  distinction 
among  the  great  men  of  God  in  this  and  past  generations. 

But  what  shall  I  say  more?  To  God  be  the  glory  for 
this  life  so  abundant  in  toil  and  rich  in  results.  In 
doing  honor  to  Bishop  Thoburn  we  also  honor  his  Maker, 
Redeemer,  and  Guide,  who  gave  him  grace  to  be  obedient 
"to  the  heavenly  vision." 

It  seems  most  fitting  that  in  the  evening  of  his  days, 
with  happy  memories  of  life-service  behind  him  and 
immortal  hope  before  him,  he  should  return  to  Mead- 
ville  and  spend  the  last  years  in  sight  of  his  Alma  Mater, 
whose  love  for  and  pride  in  her  noble  son  will  only  in- 
crease as  the  years  come  and  go.  Here  where  God 
called  him  to  special  service,  and  from  whence  he  went 
forth  to  "preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ"  to 
the  Gentiles,  may  he  abide  until  the  day  comes  when 
he  shall  "take  his  crown." 

And  now  it  remains  for  me  to  express  my  joy  in  that 
Allegheny  College,  the  Methodist  Church,  and  the 
citizens  of  Meadville  and  friends  near  and  far  have 
united  in  providing  a  home  for  the  Bishop  and  his 
children,  and  are  come  together  to  commemorate  this 
occasion.  May  the  blessing  of  Heaven  rest  upon  the 
Thoburn  family  to  all  generations! 

Bishop  Frank  W.  Warne: 

I  would  greatly  enjoy  being  present  at  the  celebration 
of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop  Thoburn  and  his 
party  sailing  for  India.  That  was  a  great  day  in  the 
history  of  Methodism.  That  was  a  great  party.  Bishop 
Thoburn  and  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Parker  have  done  great 
things  for  the  kingdom  of  India.  Bishop  Thoburn  will 
live  in  Indian  Methodist  history  in  much  the  way  that 
Bishop  Asbury  lives  in  American  Methodist  history,  and 
in  addition  to  that  Bishop  Thoburn  will  have  a  large 
place  in  the  history  and  work  of  our  whole  Church. 

I   consider  it  one  of  the  greatest  privileges  of   my 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  255 

whole  life  to  have  been  intimately  associated  with 
Bishop  Thoburn,  and,  apart  from  my  parents,  I  owe 
more  to  him  by  way  of  inspiration  and  high  ideals  and 
delightful  fellowship  than  to  any  other  man  I  have  ever 
known.  It  has  perhaps  fallen  to  my  lot  to  be  more 
closely  associated  with  the  work  of  Bishop  Thoburn 
than  any  other  man  living.  I  was  thirteen  years  pastor 
of  the  great  church  in  Calcutta  which  now  bears  his 
name,  and  for  most  part  of  that  time  had  the  honor  of 
being  the  pastor  of  his  family,  and  was  permitted  to 
study  at  close  hand  the  work  that  he  did  in  that  great 
city.  My  admiration  for  his  work  puts  him,  in  my 
estimation,  both  as  a  minister  and  Christian  statesman 
in  the  first  rank  of  living  men. 

Bishop  William  Burt: 

It  is  seldom  the  privilege  of  anyone  to  live  long  enough 
to  see  such  great  results  of  his  own  work  as  is  the  privilege 
of  James  M.  Thoburn  on  this  occasion. 

Only  fifty  years,  and  what  has  God  not  wrought 
through  this  one  man  and  his  colaborers?  He  alone  can 
tell  with  his  inimitable  eloquence  the  great  changes  that 
have  taken  place  in  India  and  picture  to  us  the  glories 
of  the  coming  day  when  heathendom  shall  be  no  more, 
and  Christ  shall  reign  supreme. 

We  know  what  an  inspiration  and  blessing  he  has 
been  to  the  home  Church  in  broadening  our  vision, 
strengthening  our  faith,  and  sanctifying  our  love  and 
service. 

Blessed  man,  may  he  yet  live  many  years,  yea,  long 
enough  to  see  India  redeemed  and  our  great  Church 
fully  awake  to  her  divine  opportunity! 

Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren : 

India  was  invaded  once  to  its  unutterable  advantage 
by  English  civil  and  military  forces;  was  invaded  again 
to  its  even  greater  advantage  by  American  spiritual 


256  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

forces  under  the  leadership  of  Butler,  Thoburn,  and 
others ;  among  whom  for  length  of  service  and  absorbing 
devotion  Thoburn  is  chief. 

Bishop  Luther  B.  Wilson : 

To  God  be  praise  for  the  gift  and  guidance  of  this 
his  servant,  whom  we  love  and  would  honor.  His  con- 
secration in  service,  his  wisdom  in  leadership,  his  out- 
look and  message  make  him  a  prophet  of  God  to  the 
Church  of  the  twentieth  century.  His  message  shall 
not  die.  May  the  beloved  messenger  long  time  abide 
with  us! 

Bishop  William  F.  Anderson : 

Hearty  congratulations  to  dear  old  Allegheny  for  its 
beautiful  tribute  to  the  most  apostolic  man  now  living, 
Bishop  Thoburn.  My  deep  regret  is  that  it  is  impossible 
to  accept  your  kind  invitation  to  be  present.  I  shall 
be  with  you  in  spirit. 

Bishop  Edwin  H.  Hughes: 

I  am  glad  to  join  with  the  multitudes  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  and  with  those  of  the  Church  Uni- 
versal in  extending  congratulations  to  Bishop  Thoburn. 
He  has  achieved  in  two  great  ways:  in  character  and 
service.  Indeed,  as  I  write,  I  find  myself  thinking  of 
two  great  apostolic  names  in  connection  with  the  name 
of  Bishop  Thoburn;  for  he  seems  to  have  gained  the 
character  of  a  Saint  John  while  doing  the  work  of  a 
Saint  Paul.  Years  ago  one  of  his  sermons  gave  me  new 
life;  and  I  owe  him  a  personal  spiritual  debt.  Greet 
the  dear  Bishop  for  me.     God  bless  him  forever' 

Bishop  William  A.  Quayle: 

This  may  serve  in  an  imperfect  way  to  express  my 
appreciation  of  the  life  and  service  of  Bishop  James  M. 
Thoburn.     His  history  has  been  an  event  in  Methodist 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  257 

history;  his  life  has  made  an  epoch  in  Methodist  life 
beyond  the  seas.  May  God  bless  him  and  make  his 
memory  precious  against  all  generations  to  come! 

Bishop  Robert  Mclntyre: 

How  much  I  regret  that  I  cannot  be  there!  Give  my 
love  to  the  old  Hero  of  India  Missions  with  the  wish 
that  he  may  return  late  to  heaven. 

Dr.  L.  B.  Wolf,  General  Secretary  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America : 

As  one  who  has  known  Bishop  Thoburn's  work  in 
India  for  twenty-five  years  and  more,  and  who  has 
known  him  personally,  I  want  to  say  that  nothing 
would  gratify  me  more  than  to  participate  in  some  way 
in  the  services  held  in  his  honor  by  his  Alma  Mater.  His 
work  in  India  has  been  a  great  and  successful  one.  All 
over  the  land,  not  only  in  his  own  Church  but  also  in 
other  Churches,  he  has  been  honored  for  his  works'  sake 
and  for  his  kindly  character  and  noble  service.  I  regret 
exceedingly  that  other  engagements  will  not  allow  our 
Board  to  send  a  representative  to  participate  in  these 
expressions  in  his  honor. 

Give  my  personal  regards  to  Bishop  Thoburn,  and 
may  the  blessing  of  the  Triune  God,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  abide  with  him  the  remainder  of  his  so- 
journ here  below. 

Dr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Secretary  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America : 

I  wish  I  could  accept  your  invitation,  but  I  have 
already  engagements  which  will  prevent  my  attending 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  sailing  for 
India.     I  esteem  and  love  Bishop  Thoburn  for  what  he 


258  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

is  and  for  what  he  has  done,  and  I  should  rejoice  to  be 
present  at  the  anniversary. 

Dr.  Henry  N.  Cobb,  Corresponding  Secretary 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America: 

We  have  received  your  kind  invitation  to  be  repre- 
sented at  the  Thoburn  Jvibilee  to  be  held  at  Allegheny 
College,  April  11-13,  to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  Bishop  Thoburn's  sailing  for  India. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  say  that  the  invitation 
is  cordially  accepted  on  our  part,  and  that  we  have 
asked  Rev.  William  I.  Chamberlain,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  to 
attend  and  represent  us  on  this  interesting  and  auspicious 
occasion. 

Dr.  Chamberlain  is  at  present  a  professor  in  Rutgers 
College,  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  and  also  a  member 
of  this  Board.  He  will,  however,  on  May  1  prox.,  be- 
come a  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Board.  He  has 
served  as  a  missionary  in  India  for  nearly  twenty  years, 
during  the  latter  part  of  which  service  he  was  principal 
of  our  college  at  Vellore.  At  present,  also,  he  is  President 
of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Amer- 
ica. We  are  glad  to  be  able  to  send  him,  and  trust 
that  his  attendance  will  be  mutually  acceptable. 

Dr.  William  North  Rice,  Acting  President  Wesleyan 
University : 

In  behalf  of  my  colleagues  and  myself  I  have  the 
honor  to  acknowledge  with  thanks  the  receipt  of  your 
invitation  to  attend  the  Thoburn  Jubilee.  We  sincerely 
regret  that  it  will  be  impracticable  for  any  of  us  to  be 
present  on  that  interesting  occasion.  We  trust  that  the 
Jubilee  services  will  be  not  only  a  worthy  recognition 
of  one  who  has  proved  himself  truly  a  successor  of  the 
apostles,  but  a  means  of  kindling  to  new  intensity  the 
missionary  spirit  in  the  Church. 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  259 

Dr.  J.  D.  Moffat,  President  Washington  and  Jef- 
ferson College,  and  Moderator  Presbyterian 
Assembly : 

Few  men  in  our  country  have  accomplished  so  much 
abroad  as  Bishop  Thoburn,  and  I  wish  that  there  might 
be  many  of  our  abler  men  to  take  up  and  carry  on  to 
its  completion  the  work  so  admirably  begun  in  foreign 
missionary  countries. 

Dr.  Edward  H.  Bosworth,  Oberlin  College: 

In  President  King's  absence  the  Faculty  has  asked 
me  to  express  to  you  our  thanks  for  the  invitation  to 
attend  the  Bishop  Thoburn  anniversary.  It  seems  im- 
possible for  a  representative  of  the  College  to  be  present, 
but  we  desire  to  express  our  deep  interest  in  the  occa- 
sion and  our  great  appreciation  of  Bishop  Thoburn's 
distinguished  missionary  achievements  in  India.  All 
sections  of  the  Church  certainly  unite  in  grateful  recog- 
nition of  the  blessing  that  has  rested  upon  his  untiring 
effort.  We  hope  that  these  anniversary  exercises  may 
awaken  fresh  interest  in  India  and  perhaps  call  out 
some  one  who  may  render  another  half  century  of 
service  in  the  great  cause. 

President  L.  H.  Murlin,  Baker  University: 

The  students  and  Faculty  of  Baker  University  author- 
ize me,  in  their  name,  to  send  cordial  greetings  to 
Allegheny  College,  and  their  gratitude  to  Bishop  Tho- 
burn for  his  consecrated  life,  which  shall  always  be  to 
them  a  blessing  and  inspiration. 

Student  Committee  Garrett  Biblical  Institute: 

Whereas,  in  the  providence  of  God,  Bishop  James  M. 
Thoburn,  by  his  thorough  consecration  to  the  cause  of 


26o  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

the  Master,  has  been  made  a  great  blessing  to  our 
Church  in  America  and  to  the  foreign  missionary  enter- 
prise, especially  in  India ;  be  it 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  students  of  Garrelt  Biblical 
Institute,  hereby  express  our  appreciation  of  his  long 
life  of  useful  service,  extend  our  sincerest  congratula- 
tions, entering  heartily  into  the  spirit  of  this  felicitous 
occasion,  and  unite  in  invoking  God's  continued  blessing 
upon  him  that  he  may  long  be  spared  to  see  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  work  which  he  has  so  wisely 
begun  and  established. 

Dr.    L.    H.    Pearce,    Editor    Northern    Christian 
Advocate : 

I  am  glad  that  through  the  Jubilee,  arranged  by  his 
Alma  Mater,  the  Church  that  has  loved  and  honored 
him,  and  in  whose  service  he  has  done  so  great  a  work, 
will  have  a  chance  to  put  additional  brightness  into 
these  sunset  days  of  his  life. 

Dr.    Franklin   Hamilton,   Chancellor  of   American 
University : 

I  regret  more  than  I  can  tell  you  my  inability  to  be 
present  at  Bishop  Thoburn's  Jubilee.  I  would  that  I 
could  join  in  these  hours  of  affectionate  appreciation 
and  gratulation.  Who  among  us  but  honors  James  M. 
Thoburn  for  his  work  and  loves  him  for  himself?  How 
appropriate  that  while  he  yet  is  with  us  he  should  have 
revealed  to  him  the  gratitude  and  reverence  of  all  God's 
people!  The  afternoon  is  worthy  of  the  morning  and 
the  noonday.  May  the  sunset  and  evening  star  be  far 
distant ! 

God  bless  Bishop  Thoburn!  The  generations  will  rise 
to  call  him  blessed.  I  am  grateful  for  the  privilege  of 
joining  my  voice  in  affectionate  remembrances  at  this 
time  of  Jubilee. 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  261 

Dr.  David  G.  Downey,  Corresponding  Secretary 
Board  of  Sunday  Schools  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church : 

No  man  in  Methodism  more  deserves  honor  and 
reverence  than  Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn.  May  God 
abundantly  bless  him,  and  greatly  enrich  the  Church  by 
continuing  to  her  for  many  years  the  benediction  of  his 
presence  and  counsel. 

Rev.  Titus  Lowe,  recently  Pastor  of  Thoburn 
Church,  Calcutta : 

I  count  it  a  high  privilege  to  add  one  note  to  the 
resounding  chorus  of  congratulation  to  Bishop  Thoburn 
which  is  being  heard  in  Meadville  in  these  days. 

For  four  years  I  trod  the  broad  avenues,  the  narrow 
streets,  and  the  narrower  zigzaging  lanes  of  Calcutta, 
the  second  city  in  the  British  empire.  Everywhere  I 
found  the  name  of  Dr.  Thoburn  loved,  honored,  and 
revered.  His  ministry  in  that  city,  more  than  twenty 
years  after  it  had  closed,  is  still  a  fragrant  memory. 
I  heard  his  praises  sung  in  the  palatial  residences  of 
Chowringhee  and  likewise  in  the  by-lanes  off  Bow 
Bazaar  andTJhurumtolla. 

Throughout  the  city  the  church  is  spoken  of  as  Dr. 
Thoburn's  church.  As  the  Indian  Jubilee  was  approach- 
ing it  occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  eminently  fitting 
should  the  church  be  formally  christened.  The  official 
board  took  up  the  suggestion  with  enthusiasm,  and  at 
the  reception  tendered  to  the  Bengal  Conference  in  Jan- 
uary, 1907,  at  which  Bishops  Thoburn  and  FitzGerald 
presided,  announcement  was  made  that  the  church 
should  be  known  henceforth  as  the  Thoburn  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  The  announcement  was  greeted  with 
great  enthusiasm,  everyone  recognizing  its  appropriate- 
ness. 


262  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

In  coming  days  Thoburn  Church  will  become  a  holy 
place,  and  the  way  thereto  will  be  well  worn  by  the 
feet  of  the  pilgrims  who  will  wend  their  way  thither  to 
see  the  place  where  the  Prince  of  Modern  Missionaries 
did  some  of  his  mightiest  work,  and  where  the  peer- 
less seer  of  our  times  uttered  forth  his  soul-stirring 
prophecies. 

Thus  far  four  distinguished  ministers  have  powerfully 
influenced  the  religious  life  of  Calcutta:  Carey,  the 
Baptist;  Heber,  the  Churchman;  Duff,  the  Presbyterian; 
and  Thoburn,  the  Methodist.  The  last  is  by  no  means 
the  least. 

SOME  OF  THE  TELEGRAMS 

Bishop  Hartzell:  "Exceedingly  regret  illness  prevents 
my  being  with  you.  Give  my  love  and  congratulations 
to  Bishop  Thoburn  on  concluding  half  century  of 
world-inspiring  usefulness." 

"San  Francisco  Methodist  Preachers'  Meeting  sends 
congratulations,  love,  and  best  wishes." 

William  F.  Warren,  Dean  Boston  Schoolof  Theology: 
"*The  Faculty  of  this  school  honor  and  love  Bishop  Tho- 
burn beyond  telegraphic  expressions.  We  hope  long  to 
meet  him  daily  at  the  mercy  seat." 

"The  Baltimore  Preachers'  Meeting  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  congratulates  you  upon  fifty  years  of 
missionary  career." 

Dr.  James  M.  Buckley:  "Regretting  impossibility  of 
being  present  at  Thoburn  Jubilee  exercises,  say  to  him 
for  me:  Your  work  abides.  The  past  and  the  present 
are  secure.  May  the  rest  of  your  life  be  gladsome,  made 
so  by  sweet  remembrances,  bright  anticipations,  and 
comfortable  surroundings." 

Mrs.  S.  B.  Cochran:  "Allegheny  is  to  be  congratulated 
upon  the  privilege  of  celebrating  the  Bishop  Thoburn 


MESSAGES  OF  GREETING  263 

Jubilee.     The  whole  Church  joins  in  appreciation  of  his 
great  work." 

"Philadelphia  Methodist  Preachers'  Meeting  joins  in 
congratulations  and  rejoicing." 

"Cincinnati  Branch  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  sends  greetings.  '  How  beautiful  upon  the  moun- 
tains are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  tidings!'  " 

Mrs.  George  O.  Robinson:  "The  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  sends  congratulations  with  profound 
appreciation  of  Bishop  Thoburn's  noble  Christian 
service." 

"The  Omaha  Methodist  Preachers'  Union  sends  greet- 
ings and  congratulations  to  the  world's  greatest  Mission- 
ary Bishop,  James  M.  Thoburn,  on  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  his  sailing  for  India." 

Dr.  Albert  C.  Knudson:  "Most  hearty  congratulations 
to  Bishop  Thoburn  and  his  Alma  Mater  from  first 
occupant  of  Thoburn  Chair  English  Bible." 

Bishop  Nuelsen:  "I  thank  God  for  the  inspiration  of 
Bishop  Thoburn's  life  and  work,  and  wish  for  him  the 
fullness  of  the  blessings  of  the  Master." 

Dr.  Charles  Bayard  Mitchell:  "Extend  to  Bishop 
Thoburn  my  heartiest  congratulations.  May  he  remain 
so  long  on  earth  that  the  friends  in  heaven  will  begin 
to  grow  apprehensive." 

Dr.  George  P.  Mains:  "To  Bishop  Thoburn  a  jubilant 
Jubilee  and  still  many  sun-crowned  years." 

J.  F.  and  Lucy  Rider  Meyer:  "We  join  the  millions 
in  congratulations  for  that  'other  man  sent  from  God' 
whose  name  was  James.    See  John  one  six." 


VI 

AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES 

At  the  Jubilee  dinner  in  Cochran  Hall  President 
Crawford  spoke  briefly  on  behalf  of  the  College  and 
then  presented  the  toast-master  of  the  evening,  Mr. 
Frank  A.  Arter,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  Allegheny  College,  who  guided  the  after-dinner 
speakers  with  rare  skill  and  wisdom.  There  is 
space  for  only  such  portions  of  the  responses  as 
relate  more  directly  to  Bishop  Thoburn  a,nd  his 
work. 

DR.  T.  L.    FLOOD 

I  have  felt  like  saying  "Amen"  to  every  senti- 
ment that  has  been  expressed  to-day  in  commenda- 
tion of  Bishop  Thoburn  and  the  work  he  has  done. 
But  there  is  one  thing  that  was  left  out.  Even  in 
that  beautiful  speech  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Meadville  District  which  was  so  complete  one  thing 
seems  to  have  been  forgotten.  As  treasurer  of  the 
fund  I  wish  to  say  that  the  house  which  was  pre- 
sented to  Bishop  Thoburn  to-day  cost  five  thousand 
dollars,  and  it  is  paid  for ;  and  in  the  envelope  which 
was  handed  to  him  wrapped  in  the  British  flag  there 
was  a  check  for  one  thousand  dollars  to  make  im- 
provements and  repairs  on  the  house.  Besides,  we 
hope  to  put  two  or  three  or  four  hundred  dollars  on 
top  of  that  thousand.     And  the  house,  after  all,  is 

264 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  265 

the  thing  he  will  enjoy  when  we  have  all  gone  home 
and  shall  have  settled  down  to  our  normal  course 
of  living. 

Now,  there  is  in  some  college  towns  a  bitter 
feeling  between  the  college — the  students  and  the 
faculty — and  the  town.  I  read  a  speech  the  other 
day  made  by  a  Methodist  Bishop  who  not  long 
since  was  the  president  of  a  university,  in  which  he 
made  the  point  that  for  many  years  there  had  been 
very  hard  feeling  between  the  people  of  the  town 
and  the  university,  which  exists  to  this  day.  The 
reverse  of  that  is  true  in  Meadville.  With  the 
college,  made  up  of  as  many  people  as  are  here, 
with  the^  faculty  doubled  in  the  last  twelve  years, 
with  the  rank  and  file  of  the  citizens  of  the  town, 
the  kindest  feelings  obtain.  The  people  of  Mead- 
ville believe  in  Allegheny  College,  they  count  it 
their  own,  and  they  are  proud  of  it,  proud  of  its 
reputation  and  proud  of  its  distinguished  sons. 

BISHOP    CHARLES    W.    SMITH 

I  may  without  impropriety  be  permitted  to  speak 
on  this  occasion  for  an  organization  which  seems 
so  far  not  to  have  been  distinctly  represented — the 
old  Pittsburg  Conference,  to  me  the  greatest  Con- 
ference in  the  Church.  It  has  an  illustrious  history 
— the  old  Conference  which  embraced  substantially 
what  is  now  included  in  four  Conferences — Pitts- 
burg, Erie,  East  Ohio,  and  West  Virginia.  It  has 
a  most  honorable  record  in  missionary  work;  while 
this    old    Conference   and   old    Allegheny   College 


266  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

together  have  a  record  scarcely  to  be  equaled.  Has 
it  been  forgotten  that  Martin  Ruter,  the  first  pres- 
ident of  the  college  under  Methodist  auspices,  was 
one  of  the  very  first  foreign  missionaries  of  the 
Church?  The  grass  had  scarcely  become  green  on 
the  grave  of  Melville  B.  Cox  in  Africa,  the  proto- 
martyr  of  Methodist  missions,  when  Martin  Ruter 
heard  the  call  of  the  perishing  and  hurried  with  the 
message  of  the  gospel  to  Texas,  then  a  foreign 
country.  To  that  land  he  gave  his  life,  and  there  he 
slept  in  an  unmarked  grave  until  a  few  years  since, 
when  Bishops  Mallalieu  and  Hamilton  had  a  suit- 
able monument  erected  over  it. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  almost  five  years 
before  this,  and  only  one  year  after  the  college  was 
taken  over  by  the  Conference,  one  of  its  brilliant 
young  ministers,  Thomas  Drummond,  left  Morgan- 
town,  Virginia,  and  hastened  to  Saint  Louis,  then 
a  frontier  village,  to  bear  the  message  of  life  to 
dying  men.  A  year  later,  in  1834,  he  fell  a  victim 
to  cholera  and  gave  up  his  young  life  to  God.  As 
the  end  approached  he  said  to  an  attendant,  "Tell 
my  brethren  of  the  Pittsburg  Conference,  I  died  at 
my  post."  On  this  incident  Dr.  William  Hunter 
wrote  a  spiritual  song,  once  widely  popular  among 
our  people,  beginning: 

Away  from  his  home  and  the  friends  of  his  youth 
He  hasted  the  herald  of  mercy  and  truth. 

In  the  same  year  from  this  Conference  there 
went  Peter  M.  McGowan  and  John  L.   Irwin,  to 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  267 

Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  with  them  Andrew 
Hunter,  a  local  preacher,  a  student  in  Madison 
College,  brother  of  Dr.  William  Hunter.  Later, 
Wesley  Browning  and  Joseph  Boyle  followed  them. 
McGowan  and  Irwin  returned,  but  the  others  be- 
came part  of  the  Church  in  that  region.  Andrew 
Hunter  came  to  such  prominence  in  the  Church 
South  and  in  the  State  as  few  men  in  any  calling 
attained.  But  I  must  not  attempt  to  call  the  roll 
of  the  men  who  have  gone  out  from  this  old  combi- 
nation to  the  pioneer  and  missionary  work  of  the 
Church.     Time  will  not  allow. 

I  cannot  give  from  memory  the  year  in  which 
Albert  L.  Long,  an  alumnus  of  the  college,  and  all 
his  ministerial  life  a  member  of  the  Conference, 
went  out  to  Bulgaria  as  a  missionary.  His  dis- 
tinctively missionary  career  was  short,  for  he  soon 
accepted  a  professorship  in  Robert  College,  Con- 
stantinople, with  the  hearty  approval  of  the  mis- 
sionary authorities,  and  that  became  his  lifework. 
He  not  only  attained  distinction  as  a  scholar  and 
teacher,  but  as  a  master  of  statesmanship  he  be- 
came a  recognized  authority  and  was  the  confiden- 
tial adviser  of  rulers  on  European  problems  and 
especially  as  they  affected  Turkey.  In  personal 
character,  in  intellectual  endowments,  in  scholarly 
attainments,  in  masterful  influence,  neither  the 
college  nor  the  Conference  has  produced  a  greater 
son  than  Albert  L.  Long. 

Bishop  Thoburn  could  give  you  the  names  of 
the  long  list  of  the  men  who  have  gone  from  us  to 


268  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

lead  the  hosts  in  India.  I  know  many  of  them,  but 
cannot  call  them  all.  Both  the  college  and  the  Con- 
ference are  proud  of  them.  Of  course,  you  need 
not  be  told  that  the  chief  of  them  all,  the  leader  of 
India,  the  peer  of  any  missionary  of  any  Church 
and  any  land,  is  the  quiet,  dynamic,  unconquerable 
little  man  whom  we  honor  on  this  occasion — James 
M.  Thoburn.  Next  to  him  as  an  influential  leader 
in  that  land  is  our  own  Bishop  Oldham.  Unques- 
tionably the  leading  missionary  in  Japan  and  Korea 
is  Bishop  M.  C.  Harris.  No  man  of  any  Church 
is  so  well  and  favorably  known  and  wields  so 
large  an  influence  as  does  this  enthusiastic  son 
of  yours. 

When  you  get  a  glimpse  of  these  things  you  can 
readily  see  why  I  am  proud  as  a  son  of  the  old  Con- 
ference to  recall  these  our  noble  brethren  who  have 
shed  such  luster  upon  us  all. 

DR.   CHARLES   M.   STUART 

I  have  been  asked  to  speak  for  the  Religious 
Press.  It  is  easy  to  become  adjusted  to  a  theme 
like  this,  especially  when  you  have  such  a  splendid 
theme  as  Bishop  Thoburn.  Just  see  what  he  has 
done  for  the  religious  press.  Bishop  Thoburn 
makes  peerless  copy.  We  can  make  our  reputation 
in  the  Northwestern  by  simply  printing  his  picture 
on  the  front  page.  More  than  that,  if  an  article  by 
Bishop  Thoburn  appears  anywhere  in  the  paper, 
people  will  forsake  even  the  advertisements  to  read 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  269 

it;  and  I  can  pay  no  higher  tribute  to  him  than 
that. 

Bishop  Thoburn  is  an  ideal  contributor.  He 
knows  when  he  gets  through,  and  when  he  gets 
through,  by  a  fine  providential  instinct  he  stops.  He 
not  only  writes  briefly  and  to  the  point  but  he  com- 
municates that  kind  of  charm  which  compels  a 
reading  from  beginning  to  end.  That  is  an  exceed- 
ingly rare  thing.  You  can  count  on  the  fingers  of 
two  hands  all  the  writers  in  this  country  who  can 
compel  a  reading  of  that  kind  in  the  religious  press. 
I  do  not  know  how  it  happens.  I  suppose  it  turns 
on  two  things — because  of  what  he  is  and  because 
of  what  he  does.  Somehow  he  has  acquired  a  repu- 
tation for  having  done  things,  and  a  reputation, 
may  I  say  it,  for  being  a  saint.  And  just  this  charm 
of  the  man  in  his  articles  is  the  last  refinement  of 
style,  and  it  is  that  which  compels  a  hearing  from 
all  our  people.  I  do  not  believe  that  personality 
is  lost  in  type,  at  all. 

Then  one  other  thing:  Bishop  Thoburn  always 
furnishes  news  that  nourishes.  There  is  one  kind 
of  news  that  diverts.  But  when  Bishop  Thoburn 
has  anything  to  say  he  is  telling  you  about  a  change 
and  progress  in  human  nature  which  bring  to  you 
the  happy  conviction  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
coming.  That  is  the  sort  of  thing  which  makes  the 
religious  paper  a  power  in  the  religious  life.  The 
thing  that  comes  from  the  heart  to  the  heart,  the 
thing  that  builds  up  faith,  the  thing  that  makes 
God  more  real  and  more  near — that  is  the  kind  of 


270  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

news   which   Thoburn   brings    in    showing   us   the 
nations  turning  to  God. 

DR.    A.    B.    LEONARD 

Dr.  Kelley  to-day  said  that  Thoburn  has  some 
very  striking  qualities.  He  called  him  an  enthusiast, 
a  plunger,  a  typical  product  of  Christianity,  a  Chris- 
tian field  marshal.  I  was  looking  for  him  to  say 
one  thing  more.  James  M.  Thoburn  in  a  seer.  He 
went  to  India  in  1859.  Dr.  William  Butler,  who 
was  the  superintendent  of  the  mission,  said  to  Tho- 
burn as  he  said  to  the  others,  "You  will  have  only 
one  language  to  learn.  We  are  here  in  the  midst 
of  seventeen  million  five  hundred  thousand  people 
who  speak  Hindustani,  and  here  is  a  field  for  us  for 
an  indefinite  period."  It  was  a  sort  of  line  he  laid 
down  beyond  which  it  was  not  supposed  Methodism 
would  go  for  decades,  if  indeed  ever.  I  said  Tho- 
burn was  a  seer.  He  began  to  see  into  the  future 
and  to  see  that  we  must  cross  the  lines  that  were 
laid  down.  In  a  few  years  he  entered  into  corre- 
spondence with  that  apostolic  missionary  William 
Taylor  and  invited  him  to  go  to  India.  He 
responded  and  held  great  revival  services  in  almost 
all  the  great  cities  of  India,  organizing  Methodist 
Episcopal  churches  among  the  English-speaking 
people,  and  these  churches  early  became  centers  of 
missionary  effort  and  they  naturally  began  to 
radiate  and  take  up  work  among  the  natives.  That 
made  it  necessary  to  change  the  line  that  had  been 
laid  down.     And  what  has  been  the  result?    Our 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  271 

Church  has  organized  its  Annual  Conferences  all 
over  the  whole  of  Southern  Asia,  including  the 
Philippine  Islands.  And  instead  of  preaching  the 
gospel  in  that  country  to-day  in  the  Hindustani 
language  alone,  our  missionaries  and  native  preach- 
ers are  preaching  the  gospel  in  more  than  forty  dif- 
ferent dialects  and  languages.  And  this  man  has 
seen  it  all  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  And  if 
there  is  any  man  to-day  in  India  that  stands  higher 
than  another,  that  is  crowned  as  being  the  prince 
among  all  the  missionaries  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  that  have  labored  in  that  country — 
and  I  might  include  the  other  churches  as  well — 
there  would  be  a  unanimous  voice  saying  that  that 
man  is  James  M.  Thoburn. 

And  before  I  sit  down  I  want  to  pay  this  tribute 
to  our  missionaries  in  Southern  Asia.  A  braver, 
more  courageous,  persistent,  and  gloriously  happy 
class  of  enthusiasts  I  have  never  seen  on  this  foot- 
stool. There  is  not  a  missionary  among  them  that 
does  not  believe  that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
we  will  conquer  Southern  Asia.  That  awful  caste 
system  is  being  undermined.  There  are  evidences 
of  it  on  every  hand.  Even  Mohammedanism  is 
feeling  the  effects  of  Christianity.  More  and  more 
Christian  ideas  are  permeating  India,  and  the  time 
is  coming  and  is  not  far  distant  when  there  is  going 
to  be  a  tremendous  breaking  down  among  those 
ancient  systems  of  religion.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
will  triumph  in  India  and  in  China  and  in  the  whole 
world. 


272  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

DR.    CHARLES   J.    LITTLE 

In  a  lecture  to  our  students  Bishop  Thoburn  once 
said  this  queer  thing :  "When  I  returned  from  India 
I  was  at  the  Round  Lake  Camp  Meeting,  and  Bishop 
Simpson,  and  Bishop  Pierce  of  the  Southern  Church, 
were  there.  As  I  was  going  by  one  of  the  tents 
one  night  I  heard  some  young  men  talking  about 
who  was  the  greater  preacher,  Bishop  Simpson  or 
Bishop  Pierce.  Some  favored  one  and  some  favored 
the  other.  But  one  of  them  spoke  up  and  said,  'You 
fellows  may  say  what  you  please,  but  as  for  me  I 
would  rather  hear  that  little  missionary  from  India 
than  either  of  them.'  And  then  another  one  chimed 
in,  'Yes,  so  would  we  all ;  but  he  can't  preach.' ' 
O,  if  I  could  only  teach  the  students  of  Garrett 
Biblical  Institute  not  to  preach  but  to  talk  out  of 
the  fullness  of  a  luminous  mind  and  a  rich,  warm 
heart  about  the  things  they  know!  There  is  an 
everlasting  waste  of  energy  in  preaching  about 
things  that  we  do  not  know  much  about ;  and  there 
are  glorious  applications  of  energy  in  talking 
sweetly  and  talking  luminously  about  the  things 
we  understand,  about  the  things  that  you  have 
wrought  into  your  life,  about  the  things  that  you 
have  experienced  in  your  hand-to-hand  contact  with 
humanity. 

Well,  we  have  trained  some  missionary  workers. 
And  if  Bishop  Thoburn  will  come  out  and  talk  to 
our  boys  we  will  train  them  better.  I  do  not  want 
Bishop  Thoburn  to  think  that  these  last  years — 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  273 

and  pray  God  they  may  be  many! — are  going  to 
be  less  rich  than  any  of  the  previous  years  of  his 
life.  I  want  him  to  feel  that  there  are  pearls  to 
plunge  for  yet,  and  that  here  among  these  students 
and  in  this  community  he  may  have  upon  him  yet 
the  touch  of  that  Hand  that  has  been  the  power  of 
his  life,  that  invisible  Hand  from  which  he  has 
never  tried  to  escape.  I  want  him  to  go  into  the 
future  with  a  sense  that  He  that  multiplied  the 
loaves  and  the  fishes  until  they  fed  a  multitude  can 
multiply  the  remnant  of  his  days  until  they  are 
precious  food  for  the  souls  with  whom  he  lives; 
that  in  his  presence  among  these  students  he  will 
be  an  electric  influence  that  will  thrill  their  souls 
as  they  look  upon  his  face  and  remember  his  work. 
I  want  him  to  go  into  the  future  with  the  feeling 
that  whenever  his  brethren  see  him  he  is  doing 
them  good,  that  whenever  they  hear  his  voice  the 
sweetness  of  his  sincerity  and  his  unaffected  humility 
is  coming  to  them  in  benediction  and  in  benefac- 
tion; that  when  he  appears  among  his  brethren  in 
Conference  the  gracious  words  that  come  from  his 
lips  quiet  strife  and  stir  up  that  sort  of  enthusiasm 
that  makes  men  glad  that  they  are  called  to  be  the 
companions  of  those  that  do  the  work  of  God. 
Days  or  years,  my  dear  friend,  that  will  be  as  God 
orders.  But  wealth,  the  wealth  of  influence,  the 
power  that  comes  from  a  life  that  has  been  conse- 
crated, that  is  yours,  that  is  yours.  Not  praise — ■ 
you  do  not  care  for  that;  not  eulogy — you  do  not 
care  for  that;  but  that  glorious  grace  of  God  that 


274  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

has  been  your  power — that  is  what  you  care  for, 
and  that  is  what  in  God's  name  and  in  Christ's  name 
I  promise  you  to  the  very  last. 

DR.  A.  J.    NAST 

I  am  deeply  grateful  for  the  opportunity  to  say  a 
word  in  behalf  of  the  hundred  thousand  German 
Methodists  of  America  and  Germany  who  revere 
the  name  of  Bishop  Thoburn  and  who  have  loved 
him  so  many  years.  I  have  had  the  honor  of  edit- 
ing the  Christian  Apologist  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  and  during  this  period  among  the  various 
benevolent  causes  for  which  contributions  have  been 
received  and  acknowledged  weekly  in  the  columns 
of  this  paper  I  think  none  have  recurred  more  fre- 
quently than  those  designated  "for  Bishop  Tho- 
burn's  Mission  in  India."  It  would  be  quite  out  of 
place  for  me  at  this  late  hour  to  attempt  to  add 
anything  to  the  many  fitting  words  that  have  already 
been  uttered  to  express  the  deep  love  and  respect 
in  which  Bishop  Thoburn  is  held  by  all  who  have 
known  him  or  who  have  acquainted  themselves  with 
his  career  and  work.  But  I  count  it  a  great  privilege 
to  be  present  at  this  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  an- 
niversary of  his  missionary  service.  I  have  known 
Bishop  Thoburn  for  the  past  twenty  years,  and  have 
had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  him  represent  his 
mission  field  many  times  before  the  General  Mis- 
sionary Committee  meetings  of  our  Church.  Some 
of  the  most  impressive  scenes  in  my  memory  are 
connected  with  these  meetings,  when  this  humble, 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  275 

quiet  man  would  chain  the  attention  and  sway  the 
minds  of  the  Missionary  Committee  as  no  other  one 
could.  It  was  impossible  not  to  catch  the  spirit  of 
his  wonderful  prophetic  vision  and  faith.  For  many 
years  he  has  been  my  ideal  of  Christian  disciple- 
ship.  I  have  often  stood  by  his  side  to  take  his 
hand  and  look  into  his  face  when  I  had  not  a 
word  to  say.  I  felt  that  Jesus  Christ  was  near 
that  man,  and  so  I  feel  this  day.  He  represents 
to  me  the  best  conception  of  a  life  of  continual 
fellowship  with  God  and  of  wholly  consecrated 
service. 

Many  eyes  are  turned  to  Allegheny  College  to- 
night, not  only  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States, 
but  also  from  India  and  from  Europe,  for  Bishop 
Thoburn's  name  and  influence  have  pervaded  the 
whole  Methodist  Church  and  he  is  one  of  the  fore- 
most interpreters  of  the  missionary  triumph  of  the 
gospel  throughout  the  whole  world.  There  is  but 
one  light  that  will  never  grow  dim;  it  is  the  Light 
of  this  world — Jesus  Christ.  There  is  but  one 
power  that  will  never  wane;  it  is  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  There  is  but  one  love  that  will 
never  perish  from  the  earth;  it  is  the  love  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This  light,  this  power,  this  love 
have  all  been  embodied  in  the  person  of  James  M. 
Thoburn,  because  his  has  been  supremely  a  life  of 
faith  in  the  Son  of  God.  Bishop  Thoburn,  our 
prayers  go  up  to  God's  throne  for  you  throughout 
our  beloved  Methodism,  and  I  echo  the  beautiful 
sentiment  of  Dr.  Little  that  these  last  years  may  be 


276  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

weighted  more  richly  with  blessings  to  you  than  all 
that  have  gone  before ! 

DR.   WILLIAM   I.    CHAMBERLAIN 

I  am  much  honored  in  being  the  official  repre- 
sentative of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  America,  which  is  celebrating 
this  year  its  seventy-fifth  anniversary,  to  bring  its 
greetings  to  Bishop  Thoburn  and  to  President 
Crawford,  and  also  those  of  Rutgers,  a  college  still 
older  than  Old  Allegheny,  one  of  the  few  founded 
before  we  came  to  be  a  nation,  a  college  one  hundred 
and  forty-three  years  old;  and  also  of  a  city  still 
older  than  Meadville,  a  city  that  received  its  charter 
on  the  day  following  the  grant  of  the  charter  to 
New  York  city  herself.  I  represent  also  this  even- 
ing— and  I  do  not  wish  to  exalt  the  office  except 
in  so  far  as  it  honors  still  more  the  guest  whom  we 
all  wish  to  honor  in  every  legitimate  and  proper 
way  this  evening — I  stand  to-night  as  the  presid- 
ing officer  of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America,  the  highest  ecclesiastical  body 
of  that  most  ancient  Protestant  Church  in  this 
country,  which  first  organized  a  church  in  1628  on 
the  Island  of  Manhattan;  and  as  such  I  officially 
bring  the  greetings  of  that  ancient  body  to  our 
Bishop  Thoburn  to-night.  I  have  said  "our  Bishop 
Thoburn,"  for  he  is  more  than  the  Bishop  of  Meth- 
odism, more  than  the  Bishop  of  the  India  mission 
field.  He  is  the  Bishop  of  the  Church  universal, 
because  of  his  contribution  to  the  Church  universal. 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  277 

I  have  wondered  to-night  what  impression  I 
could  take  from  this  most  interesting  gathering. 
And  the  first  is  one  of  very  sincere  congratulation 
to  the  college  and  to  the  town,  the  two  bodies  unit- 
ing in  this  most  unique  and  happy  celebration  of  this 
most  remarkable  event. 

It  seems  to  me  that  among  all  the  various  qual- 
ities that  have  been  ascribed  to  Bishop  Thoburn 
through  these  interesting  exercises  there  is  one  that 
gathers  about  itself  all  others,  one  that  has  projected 
itself  not  only  through  Methodism  but  through 
India  and  through  the  Church  universal,  and  that 
is  a  most  winning  and  a  most  forceful  personality. 
Dr.  Stuart  has  said  that  personality  cannot  be  lost 
even  in  cold  type.  Here  is  a  personality  that  has 
projected  itself  not  only  into  the  Church  at  home, 
but  into  the  Orient,  and  has  worked  itself  out  in 
many  personalities  that  in  the  days  to  corfle  will  rise 
up  and  call  him  blessed. 

Another  impression  is  this :  It  has  been  said  that 
Bishop  Thoburn  is  a  seer.  It  is  not  easy  for  a  man 
to  be  a  visionary.  It  is  not  easy  for  a  man  to  plunge 
down  into  the  mire  of  heathenism  to  find  pearls,  or 
to  stay  there  long  enough  to  get  the  pearls  and 
bring  them  to  the  surface.  It  was  not  easy  for 
men  in  the  gloom  and  silence  of  the  catacombs  to 
foresee  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  empire. 
Everything  good  in  the  world  was  an  ideal  before 
it  became  a  realized  fact,  and  these  great  visions 
that  the  Bishop  has  seen  in  India  have  come  to  be 
so  many  of  them  realized  facts.     "Paradise  Lost" 


278  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

was  a  daydream  in  the  mind  of  the  blind  poet  before 
it  became  the  great  and  immortal  poem  of  John 
Milton.  Saint  Peter's  at  Rome  was  a  daydream  in 
the  mind  of  the  great  architect  until  Michael  Angelo 
saw  the  old  Roman  Pantheon  and  lifted  it  up  and 
hung  it  in  the  grandest  domed  cathedral  of  the 
world  to-day.  Indeed,  it  is  only  the  ideals  that 
these  visionaries  like  Bishop  Thoburn  see  that  seem 
destined  for  realization  in  the  onward  march  of 
the  history  of  mankind.  The  stupendous  majesty 
of  the  ideal  is  the  certain  guaranty  of  its  immortality. 
Browning  has  somewhere  said : 

God  gives  to  every  man  one  life,  like  a  lamp, 
Then  gives  that  lamp  due  measure  of  oil. 
Lamp  lighted.     Lift  high.     Wave  wide. 

We  rejoice  together  to-night  with  a  great  joy  that 
Bishop  Thoburn  has  lighted  his  lamp,  that  he  has 
lifted  it  high,  and  that  he  has  waved  it  wide,  so  that 
it  shines  far  into  the  darkest  corners  of  Asia  and 
into  our  hearts  to-night. 

MR.  FRANK  A.  ARTER 

When  some  one  spoke  of  Bishop  Thoburn  as  a 
field  marshal  I  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  events 
that  transpired  as  I  followed  him  here  and  there 
over  that  great  field  in  India  over  which  he  has 
marshaled  his  hosts.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting 
sight  of  all  my  recent  tour  was  when  we  got  up  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  see  the  sun  rise  on 
Mount  Everest,  towering  six  miles  into  the  sky. 
But  there  was  one  sight  more  interesting  to  me  than 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  279 

to  see  the  sun  rise  on  that  magnificent  mountain. 
At  eventide  over  on  Observation  Hill  I  sat  for  two 
hours  watching  the  declining  sun.  And  as  the  shad- 
ows came  up  the  valleys  from  the  western  hills, 
creeping  up,  up,  up,  finally  covering  those  glistening 
mountains,  hid  from  sight  and  yet  far  out  in  the 
unknown  I  could  still  see  that  reflected  light  on  the 
world  beyond. 

We  have  seen  the  rise  of  this  great  soul  beside 
me ;  we  have  seen  the  light  as  it  began  to  shine  from 
his  first  feeble  efforts,  and  we  have  seen  it  grow  till 
the  light  shone  over  the  whole  world.  And  now 
we  are  sitting  on  Observation  Hill.  The  shadows 
are  beginning  to  grow  a  little  longer.  Our  friend 
may  be  here  a  few  years.  He  cannot  hope  to  be  here 
a  great  many.  And  yet  when  the  time  does  come 
and  he  is  taken  out  of  our  sight,  the  reflected  light 
from  this  immortal  man  will  still  shine,* not  only 
here  but  beyond  in  other  generations. 

And  now  I  shall  not  keep  you  longer  from  hearing 
the  man  you  most  want  to  hear.  Bishop  Thoburn, 
I  now  present  you  to  your  friends. 

RESPONSE  OF  BISHOP  THOBURN  AT  BANQUET 

I  could  say  a  great  deal  if  time  permitted  and  if 
I  thought  it  proper,  for  you  have  mentioned  so 
many  things  this  evening  which  are  of  intense 
interest  to  anyone  who  knows  India  that  I  have  no 
lack  of  topics.  But  it  would  be  out  of  taste,  and  I 
hardly  think  there  would  be  any  necessity  to  justify 
it  if  I  were  to  talk  to  you  very  long. 


280  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

I  am  somewhat  puzzled  myself  with  what  I  hear, 
and  I  do  not  fully  succeed  in  accounting  to  myself 
for  some  of  the  expressions — I  may  say  most  of  the 
expressions — that  I  have  heard  here  this  evening. 
I  think  I  have  a  pretty  correct  idea  of  what  I  have 
done  in  the  last  fifty  years.  I  do  not  think  I  have 
been  misled  very  seriously  in  putting  an  estimate 
on  it,  and  I  am  very  confident  that  many  of  you 
have  been. 

God  has  enabled  me  to  do  some  things  undoubt- 
edly on  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  in  the  name  of 
his  Son,  Jesus.  I  do  not  for  a  single  moment  doubt 
that.  But  it  has  not  been  so  exclusively  my  work 
as  most  persons  have  supposed.  I  have  been  asso- 
ciated with  a  large  number  of  rare  men  and  women 
over  there  from  almost  the  beginning  of  the  fifty 
years,  and  I  know  what  my  share  may  have  been 
and  what  theirs  may  have  been,  and  you  are  giving 
me  a  great  deal  of  credit  which  some  better  men 
and  women  really  deserve. 

If  there  is  anything  in  particular  about  myself 
that  perhaps  might  distinguish  my  work  a  little 
from  that  of  some  others,  I  should  say  it  is  this : 
I  used  to  be  greatly  concerned  about  what  Meth- 
odist people  in  the  early  days  called  "power,"  or 
what  many  people  still  call  a  baptism  of  power,  or 
the  anointing  of  power.  Such  expressions  are  found 
in  the  Bible,  I  know,  but  the  idea  is  often  very  mis- 
leading, because  people  who  begin  to  be  concerned 
on  this  subject  are  apt  to  think  that  it  is  something 
like  a  shawl  that  is  thrown  over  the  shoulders, 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  281 

and  that  we  must  get  this  robe  of  power  and  then 
we  shall  be  able  to  do  this  and  that  and  the  other 
thing.  I  have  known  a  great  many  hundred  people 
in  my  day  who  were  uselessly  and  I  think  harmfully 
concerned  about  the  power  to  work  miracles.  They 
believed  they  were  not  very  good  Christians  be- 
cause they  could  not  work  miracles,  and  they  have 
often  come  to  me  and  asked  my  advice  on  that 
subject.  So  far  from  being  conscious  that  I  have 
been  gaining  in  spiritual  power  all  through  these 
years,  I  am  conscious  rather  that  I  have  been  made 
more  and  more  aware  of  the  fact  that  I  am  girded 
all  around  about  with  spiritual  weakness,  and  that 
my  ability  to  do  some  good  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  becomes  most  striking  while  I  am  feeling 
my  weakness.  The  apostle  Paul  affirmed  that  his 
strength  was  made  perfect  in  weakness,  and  in  our 
day  as  in  his  it  is  true  that  when  we  are  conscious 
of  our  weakness  we  think  of  Christ,  and  we  per- 
haps think  of  him  alone.  And  it  is  then  that  we 
are  really  put  in  a  position  to  represent  him. 

When  I  first  began  to  preach  I  believed  distinctly 
that  God  wished  me  to  do  it,  and  yet  I  had  not  very 
clear  ideas  or  ideals.  And  after  I  had  preached 
perhaps  three  or  four  weeks,  and  did  not  see  any 
result,  and  did  not  see  any  prospect  of  things  get- 
ting better,  I  went  out  one  day  into  the  woods  to 
pray.  It  was  along  in  the  month  of  August,  as  I 
remember,  and  I  found  a  fallen  maple  tree  the 
leaves  of  which  had  dried  on  the  branches,  in  such 
way  that  I  could  go  in  among  them  and  be  con- 


282  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

cealed  from  observation.  There  was  no  one  in  the 
woods  to  see  me,  anyway,  but  I  had  an  intense 
desire  to  be  alone  with  God.  I  said  to  myself,  "I 
will  not  come  out  of  here  until  I  have  found  the 
anointing  of  power  that  I  shall  need  as  a  preacher." 
With  this  feeling  and  resolution  I  began^to  pray. 
Nothing  like  power  seemed  to  Come  to  me.  I 
prayed  for  the  fullness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  with 
no  apparent  result.  I  prayed  for  what  Methodist 
people  in  the  olden  time  were  apt  to  call  a  blessing, 
that  is,  when  they  had  a  vague  notion  that  some- 
thing good  and  great  was  needed,  but  had  no  clear 
idea  as  to  what  it  was. 

When  I  became  intensely  earnest  I  said  to  myself, 
"I  am  not  fit  to  preach  as  I  am;  I  cannot  go  and 
represent  Jesus  Christ  to  the  people  around  me,  and 
I  must  have  that  which  will  qualify  me  to  do  this." 
All  I  found  was  this :  It  seemed  to  me — I  cannot 
explain  that  phrase — but  the  only  thing  I  can  say 
is  that  my  Saviour  Jesus  came  there.  I  did  not  see 
him;  there  was  a  consciousness,  that  was  all,  of  a 
Divine  Presence.  And  the  words  were  not  articu- 
lated, and  yet  they  were  spoken,  spoken  to  my  con- 
sciousness, "Go,  preach  my  gospel."  That  was  all. 
And  it  just  seemed  as  if  a  great  foundation  of 
adamant  had  slipped  under  my  feet.  I  had  some- 
thing to  stand  on,  and  I  have  had  no  very  serious 
trouble  since.     And  this  is  all. 

I  did  not  get  my  ideal,  what  we  call  a  blessing, 
at  that  time.  It  was  simply  a  commission  from  the 
risen  Son  of  God.    I  had  not  any  doubt  at  all  that 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  283 

Jesus  Christ  was  there,  and  had  spoken  those  words. 
For  he  usually  speaks  to  us  still  through  his  inspired 
Word,  uses  that  as  the  agency  through  which  the 
Spirit  acts. 

I  went  out  to  my  work,  and  there  was  no  very 
great  result  that  followed  for  some  time.  But  I 
almost  immediately  perceived  that  when  I  preached 
away  up  in  a  box  at  one  end  of  a  room,  called  a 
pulpit,  while  people  were  sitting  around  here  and 
there  trying  to  understand  what  I  was  saying,  I 
was  not  accomplishing  much.  If  I  had  been  hungry 
and  had  wanted  to  get  a  ten-o'clock  lunch  from 
one  of  the  farmer's  wives  who  was  present,  I  would 
have  gone  down  to  her  in  the  most  practical, 
straightforward  way  in  the  world,  and  told  her 
exactly  what  I  wanted,  and  I  am  sure  she  would 
have  attended  to  my  request  without  delay.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  in  those  days  nobody  talked 
religion  in  that  straightforward  way.  They  had  a 
religious  tone  and  phraseology,  and  a  great  deal 
more  of  a  peculiar  phraseology  than  they  have  now. 
It  was  of  a  kind  that  seemed  to  hold  us  at  a  distance. 

The  months  ran  along  and  the  time  came  to  hold 
what  we  called  protracted  meetings.  There  was 
a  little  country  village  twelve  miles  away,  and  my 
colleague  said  we  would  open  up  there.  He  said 
to  me:  "You  go  on  down  to  Greentown  and  begin 
meetings  on  Thursday  night.  Preach  Thursday 
night,  Friday  night,  and  Saturday  night,  and  preach 
twice  on  Sunday,  and  by  that  time  you  will  be  ready 
to  set  the  meetings  in  motion  and  I  will  come  down 


284  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

on  Tuesday."  I  went  away  very  glad,  because  it 
was  my  first  chance  to  have  the  responsibility  of 
conducting  a  meeting. 

I  went  down  to  that  little  village,  and  said  to 
myself  that  I  did  not  really  know  those  people,  and 
must  know  them  before  I  could  do  much  in  the  way 
of  preaching  to  them.  So  I  decided  to  visit  the 
whole  town  and  to  pray  in  every  house  where  they 
would  let  me  pray,  and  proceeded  to  do  so.  It  was 
a  little  awkward  at  first,  but  I  soon  learned  the  trade. 
I  would  begin  the  conversation  about  something  or 
other  and  bring  around  the  subject  of  religion,  and 
after  a  while  I  would  ask  if  they  would  let  me  pray 
with  them.  It  was  a  little  trying  for  a  boy — I  was 
a  beardless  youth  then — yet  I  found  that  I  was 
making  headway.  There  was  one  house  where  they 
would  not  let  me  pray,  but  only  one.  There  was  a 
Roman  Catholic  woman  in  the  village  and  I  had 
not  the  slightest  trouble  in  winning  her  favor.  I 
remember  well  the  good  woman,  who  was  pretty 
well  known  in  the  town.  I  went  in  and  said,  "I 
understand  you  are  Irish."  "O  yes."  "Well,"  I 
said,  "everybody  else  in  the  village  is  Pennsylvania 
Dutch,  and  you  and  I  make  up  the  Irish  part  of 
the  community.  I  am  an  Irishman,  too."  And  so 
I  was — that  is,  my  parents  were.  And  I  still  often 
tell  people  the  same  thing.  Well,  that  woman  had 
never  gone  to  a  Protestant  place  of  worship  except 
on  funeral  occasions.  I  got  her  to  come,  with  no 
trouble  at  all. 

I  was  thinking  that  by  the  time  my  colleague  got 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  285 

down  we  would  get  things  stirred.  Saturday  night 
came  around  and  the  house  was  full.  I  said,  "If 
any  persons  here  would  like  to  have  us  pray  for 
them,  personally  and  specially,  I  wish  they  would 
just  indicate  it  to  us  by  rising."  There  was  a  lady 
right  in  front  of  me,  about  five  seats  away,  wrho 
stood  up.  Her  husband  had  risen  away  back  by 
the  door,  but  she  did  not  know  it.  Everybody  was 
startled.  They  were  among  the  leaders  of  fashion 
in  all  that  part  of  the  country,  and  persons  who 
seemed  to  be  recognized  as  irreligious — and  here 
was  the  wife  in  front  and  the  husband  farther  back, 
and  both  of  them  rising  to  get  us  to  pray  for  them. 
Well,  the  end  of  it  was  that  the  revival  was  "on," 
was  in  actual  progress. 

By  this  time  I  had  learned  one  thing:  that  every 
time  I  had  gone  into  one  of  those  houses  Jesus 
Christ  had  gone  with  me.  I  believed  that.  I  had 
no  doubt  of  it  then,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
of  it  now.  It  was  a  real  presence  in  very  deed. 
I  believed  that  he  was  there,  and  while  I  was  try- 
ing to  represent  him,  exactly  the  same  thing  was 
going  on  that  used  to  go  on  in  the  land  of  Judea, 
when  Jesus  was  here  in  this  world.  And  I  assumed 
as  a  matter  of  course  that  he  would  attend  to  the 
work  if  I  would  do  my  part  of  it. 

By  Monday  the  whole  town  understood  what  was 
going  on,  and  Monday  night  when  I  asked  persons 
to  come  forward  for  prayers  we  could  not  get  room 
for  those  who  came  in  the  little  church.  When 
my  colleague  came  down  the  next  day,  expecting 


286  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

that  we  had  probably  got  ready  to  begin  work,  he 
seemed  almost  dazed.  He  could  not  realize  that 
no  preparation  was  needed,  and  that  we  had  only 
to  march  up  and  take  possession  of  the  land. 

Now,  that  is  all  there  is  about  it,  as  far  as  my 
work  goes.  From  that  time  on  I  learned  this  lesson 
and  that  lesson  about  how  things  were  to  be  done, 
but  all  there  has  been  in  it,  and  all  there  is  in  it 
to-day,  as  I  believe  and  know,  is  the  supreme  fact 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  with  me.  It  is  a  partnership. 
Whatever  I  do  in  his  name,  he  becomes  responsible 
for  seeing  that  the  right  result  is  reached ;  that  is  all. 

In  this  spirit  I  went  out  to  India.  I  knew  that 
Jesus  Christ  had  laid  his  pierced  hand  on  my  head, 
and  had  set  me  apart  to  go  to  India  in  his  name. 
The  story  is  too  long  to  tell  at  this  late  hour,  but 
what  I  tell  you  now  represents  the  fact.  I  knew 
that.  Though  I  sometimes  believe  God  called  me 
with  his  Spirit  so  that  I  was  in  a  somewhat  abnor- 
mal condition  spiritually,  I  never  yet  had  what  we 
call  a  Christian  experience  that  seemed  to  me  to  be 
exactly  the  right  thing;  but  I  learned  that  the  only 
way  to  have  an  experience  that  you  can  depend  upon 
at  all  is  to  just  simply  cling  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
remember  that  he  has  said,  "I  will  never  forsake 
thee."  And  so  as  the  years  went  by  I  became  per- 
fectly certain  that  after  I  had  been  moved  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  to  go  and  open  a  new  mission,  if  I 
went  I  should  not  go  alone.  And  so  when  the 
word  came  to  me,  "Go  down  to  Rangoon  and  preach 
there,  and  when  the  people  are  converted  organize 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  287 

them  into  a  church  and  set  things  going,"  I  went 
down  to  that  town  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
away,  and  took  a  colleague  with  me  who  was  a 
good  singer,  and  who  was  able  to  help  in  the  preach- 
ing. The  Baptists  gave  us  the  use  of  their  chapel, 
and  a  good  man  from  England  took  me  in  and 
entertained  me.  After  I  had  been  there  about  a  day 
a  man  came  in  and  as  I  looked  up  he  said,  "You  do 
not  seem  to  know  me."  "No,  I  do  not  know  you." 
He  said,  "I  thought  you  would  know  me.  You 
have  seen  me  before;  I  am  one  of  the  men  you 
prayed  with  on  Thursday  evening  up  in  Calcutta." 
I  said,  "I  pray  with  people  every  day,  and  I  do  not 
recall  that  particular  occasion."  He  said,  "I 
thought  you  would  remember  it  because  we  were 
both  drunk."  I  then  remembered.  He  continued, 
"It  impressed  us  that  you  would  pray  with  us  when 
we  were  drunk;  and  when  I  came  down  here  and 
heard  that  you  were  here  it  struck  me  that  you 
might  have  no  money  and  I  have  come  round  to 
offer  you  some."  Well,  I  hadn't  much  money  in 
those  days;  I  had  no  salary  from  the  Missionary 
Society,  and  I  gladly  accepted  his  offer. 

Y'ou  may  think  that  I  was  letting  myself  down, 
that  I  would  lose  the  respect  of  the  people  when  I 
let  myself  be  supported  by  wandering  drunkards! 
Not  at  all.  If  you  begin  to  think  of  your  fellow 
men  in  that  way  you  will  never  do  them  any  good  at 
all.  A  man  may  happen  to  be  drunk,  or  he  may  be 
a  drinking  man,  but  I  must  regard  him  simply  as 
my  brother.     At  the  utmost  he  is  a  sinner,  and  so 


288  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

am  I.  Whenever  we  get  so  that  we  are  troubled 
about  the  people  around  us  being  wicked  we  are 
not  going  to  do  them  any  good  at  all.  Paul  at  his 
best  said,  "Among  all  this  whole  host  of  sinners  I 
am  the  biggest — 'of  whom  I  am  chief.'  " 

I  did  not  make  any  ado  about  it;  I  just  simply 
said,  "Thank  you,  I  will  take  your  money,"  and  he 
was  the  first  man  to  join  the  Methodist  church  in 
that  town.  And  that  is  the  kind  of  material  we  put 
into  the  foundation  of  a  Christian  empire  over  there. 
Never  put  a  man  aside  because  he  is  not  influential 
in  the  community.  Never  despair  of  the  conversion 
of  a  drunkard,  whether  man  or  woman — and  a 
great  many  women  were  drinking  there.  Never 
draw  lines.  Never  adopt  complex  methods.  Do 
not  allow  a  choir  to  run  away  with  your  judgment. 
That  is  an  immense  question.  I  am  afraid  that  the 
choir  in  the  modern  church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  has  usurped  a  more  prominent  place  than 
belongs  to  it,  and  you  are  depending  more  on  your 
music  than  you  are  on  your  preaching  for  getting 
the  people  to  come  to  church.  But  you  will  never 
save  the  people  of  these  United  States  by  that  pro- 
ceeding. You  may  keep  your  congregation  as  large 
as  that  of  the  Presbyterian  church  across  the  way, 
or  the  Baptist  church  on  the  next  street — they  are 
all  about  alike  in  this  matter — but  that  is  not  going 
to  save  a  nation.  Music  will  take  its  rightful  place 
if  you  let  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  determine  the  char- 
acter of  the  service.  And  remember  always  that 
he  is  standing  there,  and  while  nobody  sees  him, 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  289 

still  he  is  looking  at  you  and  at  the  audience  with 
an  eye  of  flame.  And  he  is  not  going  to  give  you 
any  great,  overwhelming  spiritual  sensation,  that 
some  people  call  an  outpouring  of  the  Spirit, 
for  the  mere  sake  of  startling  the  crowd.  He  will 
do  just  as  he  has  done  before.  He  has  not  changed. 
Yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever  he  is  the  same.  He 
is  walking  in  every  place  to-day  just  as  he  did  when 
he  was  here  in  this  world,  and  you  will  learn  after 
a  while  that  when  you  go  out  on  his  errands  you  can 
catch  his  hand  and  walk  beside  him  as  you  would 
walk  beside  any  friend. 

There  will  be  no  great  sensation,  no  great  spir- 
itual flurry,  there  will  be  no  great  and  sudden  over- 
flow of  joy  such  as  we  used  to  hear  so  much  about 
in  our  meetings.  It  is  business.  It  is  divine  busi- 
ness.    Give  God  a  place  in  the  midst. 

Great  times  are  at  the  door.  This  world  is  going 
to  be  saved.  We  have  not  any  conception  at  all  of 
the  great  work  out  yonder.  I  have  again  and  again 
found  myself  with  right  in  front  of  me,  on  the 
ground,  under  the  trees,  two  thousand,  three  thou- 
sand, or  four  thousand  men  and  women — and  it 
is  a  wonderful  thing  that  there  are  both  men  and 
women,  because  they  never  before  met  in  the  same 
assembly  at  all.  Here  they  were,  husbands  and 
wives,  mothers  and  daughters,  fathers  and  sons. 
And  I  would  talk  to  them  just  as  I  am  talking  to 
you,  trying  to  make  them  understand  what  it  is  to 
be  Christians.  "Have  you  received  the  Spirit  yet  ?-" 
That  is  what  they  always  say.     They  never  say, 


290  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

"Are  you  converted?" — never.  One  will  say  to  the 
other,  "How  long  have  you  been  a  Christian  ?"  "I 
was  baptized  three  weeks  ago  last  Monday." 
"Have  you  received  the  Spirit  yet?"  And  when 
they  say  they  have  received  the  Spirit  they  mean 
exactly  what  the  Methodist  convert  means  when  he 
says  here,  "The  Lord  has  converted  my  soul."  And 
when  you  go  and  talk  with  him  you  will  find  that 
what  the  poor  fellow  means  is  this :  He  will  say,  "I 
love  Christ  now  as  my  Saviour.  I  did  not  know 
anything  about  that  before."  And  he  will  tell  you, 
perhaps,  that  he  feels  that  his  sins  are  forgiven,  or 
he  may  tell  you,  instead  of  that,  that  he  simply  now 
loves  God,  and  that  he  prays  anew,  and  it  is  all 
real  to  him. 

We  can  teach  those  poor  fellows,  and  they 
develop  into  men.  And  then  we  begin  to  license 
some  of  them  as  exhorters  in  the  old  Methodist 
style,  and  next  we  promote  them  to  be  local  preach- 
ers. We  have  two  classes  of  local  preachers ;  and 
by  and  by  we  take  them  into  the  Annual  Conference, 
and  then  some  of  them  are  put  in  charge  of  cir- 
cuits. And  with  God's  blessing  we  are  developing 
some  splendid  men,  men  who  bring  things  to  pass, 
men  who  understand  the  whole  business  of  establish- 
ing the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men.  And 
that  is  all  there  is  to  it. 

Perhaps  you  have  been  expecting  me  to  tell  you 
a  great  deal  more  in  the  line  of  wonders.  The  great 
wonder  is  that  we  have  reached  a  people  who  are 
so  poor,  so  ignorant,  so  dense  in  their  ideas.    I  say 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  291 

the  great  wonder  is  that  we  have  been  able  to  reach 
them  at  all.  And  the  fact  that  I  have  seen  eight 
hundred  women  in  one  body,  all  Christians;  that 
I  have  seen  perhaps  a  thousand  men  with  their 
wives  in  one  assembly — the  fact  that  we  have 
reached  such  a  point  as  that  indicates  that  God  is 
doing  great  things.  Now  they  are  going  to  come 
by  the  thousands,  those  poor  people  that  our  friend, 
Dr.  Janvier,  spoke  about  to-day,  those  Chumars, 
the  low-caste  people — and  there  are  millions  of  them, 
practically  of  the  same  kind.  We  have  received 
thousands  from  those  different  classes  of  low- 
caste  peoples.  I  know  now  of  six  different  places 
where  we  have  bodies  of  men  who  are  offering 
themselves  as  candidates  for  Christian  baptism, 
numbering  from  five  to  ten  thousand  each,  and  we 
might  just  as  readily  as  not  have  ten  thousand  con- 
verts in  each  place,  which  would  be  sixty  thousand 
a  year,  and  it  would  not  surprise  me  if  it  were  more. 
We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  accept  the  fact  that 
God  means  Jo  save  the  world,  and  if  so,  we  must 
learn  how  to  count  by  the  million.  We  must  do  it, 
and  not  be  frightened  by  a  mere  row  of  figures. 

I  must  confess,  howrever,  that  many  good  men 
and  women  think  I  am  too  sanguine.  They  have 
grave  doubts.  They  fear  that  the  ignorant  converts 
may  corrupt  the  Church.  It  has  been  said  to  me, 
"Don't  you  see  that  the  whole  thing  is  bringing 
into  the  Christian  Church  a  class  of  people  who  do 
not  understand  what  they  are  doing,  and  after  a 
while  we  shall  have  a  dreadful  state  of  things  here?" 


292  THOBURN  AND  INDIA 

I  see  it,  of  course,  but  I  see  this  also,  that  we  are 
bringing  these  people  to  the  feet  of  Jesus  Christ; 
and  as  this  world  is  to  become  a  Christian  world, 
there  must  be  a  time  coming,  and  coming  soon, 
in  which  Jesus  Christ  will  meet  these  people  in  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  by  thousands,  and  tens  of 
thousands,  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  millions, 
for  he  means  to  save  the  world.  When  you  say 
there  has  never  been  anything  like  this  in  history, 
I  admit  it ;  of  course  there  has  not.  But,  as  Brother 
Janvier  said  a  while  ago,  things  are  changing  for 
the  better.  The  opportunities  are  different  and  they 
will  be  a  great  deal  better.  And  by  and  by  there 
will  come  along  here  a  man  who  will  say,  "They  say 
there  used  to  be  an  old  missionary  around  here, 
whom  you  knew  as  Brother  Thoburn,  and  he  used 
to  be  happy  when  they  would  gather  up  statistics 
and  show  that  they  had  made  as  many  as  fifteen  or 
sixteen  thousand  converts  in  twelve  months,  but  now 
we  have  as  many  as  that  in  one  week."  That  is 
the  kind  of  talk  some  of  you  will  hear.  And  then 
there  will  come  beyond  that  a  still  larger  number. 
I  cannot  go  on  talking  to  you.  You  are  dear, 
good,  blessed  people,  and  the  Lord  loves  you,  and 
will  reward  you  for  all  your  kindness  and  goodness, 
but  some  of  you  will  live  to  see  grander  things  than 
I  have  ever  seen,  or  even  dreamed  of. 

AN  ADDED  WORD 

Of    the    eight    missionaries    who    accompanied 
Bishop  Thoburn,  one,  J.   R.  Downey,  died  before 


AFTER-DINNER  RESPONSES  293 

reaching  his  station  in  India.  He  was  the  youngest 
of  the  five  brethren,  but  seemed  to  be  in  good  health 
and  gave  promise  of  a  successful  career  in  the  mis- 
sion field.  But  his  death  before  reaching  his  station 
in  India  illustrated  the  mysterious  ordering  of  God's 
providence.  One  was  taken,  and  the  rest  left.  Of 
the  eight  survivors,  two  are  left  in  India :  Dr.  James 
Walter  Waugh,  an  alumnus  of  Allegheny  College, 
and  Mrs.  L.  S.  Parker,  the  widow  of  the  late  Bishop 
E.  W.  Parker,  who  not  only  survives  but  whose 
name  is  found  on  the  list  of  effective  missionaries. 
Dr.  Waugh  is  living  in  retirement  at  Naini  Tal, 
while  Mrs.  Parker  is  at  the  station  to  which  she 
was  appointed  at  the  last  session  of  the  North  India 
Women's  Conference.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in 
this  company  which  sailed  in  1859  wer^  two  young 
men  who  lived  to  become  pioneer  missionary  bishops. 
Dr.  Waugh  holds  the  honorable  record  of  being  the 
founder  of  our  first  missionary  press,  and  con- 
sequently of  our  publishing  work  in  India.  It  has 
often  been  remarked  that  no  company  of  mission- 
aries that  has  been  sent  by  our  Church  to  India  has 
rendered  more  notable  service  than  the  brethren 
and  sisters  who  sailed  by  the  ice  ship  Boston  in 
1859.  Perhaps  it  ought  to  be  explained  that  fifty 
years  ago  not  only  India,  but  nearly  all  the  Orient, 
depended  for  its  ice  supply  upon  sailing  ships  which 
were  transformed  into  so  many  ice  houses,  and 
carried  before  the  winds  to  the  chief  cities  of  the 
tropical  world. 


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